


Light of the Sun

by AikoIsari



Series: Solar Eclipse [6]
Category: Digimon - All Media Types, Digimon Adventure
Genre: Age Swap, Alternate Universe - Canon, Complete, Destiny, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-17
Updated: 2014-02-12
Packaged: 2018-01-01 19:27:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 75
Words: 37,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AikoIsari/pseuds/AikoIsari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>[01] AU, ageswap. He is her little brother, so she's really not surprised when he ends up running through the streets on the back of a scarred dinosaur while being chased by a psycho vampire.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. 1.1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey all, look another fic. I'm not apologizing. This was fun. I hope you like it too. Anyway, drabble!AU, no challenge, just for fun, updates will be every day, have not given up on Finish Line, I just think my muse refuses to let me update. Also, it wants me to finish more stuff, so I'll go with it. Anyway, here we are. Enjoy! Read and review my friends.
> 
> Warnings: AU, ageswap and slight destiny swap of Taichi and Hikari, no shipping, a couple curses, expanding on plot points, slight insanity, possible OOC but I don't think so.
> 
> Please let me know what you think
> 
> Arc 1: Feelings

1.1

She regrets leaving her brother at home.

She regrets because she knows there are a lot of things wrong with the world and leaving her silly, impulsive, cheerful little brother in the hands of her parents doesn't make her feel safe.

But that's because she can see things, and he can't and they can't and it annoys her to no end on some days. However, she is the big sister, and Hikari is always able to give Taichi an earnest smile, even though for once it's him sniffling in the bed and her running off into the sun with skin glowing gold.

To be honest, it's a little disheartening. She promises to bring him back a bag of pinecones.


	2. 1.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Morning updates are fun!

Summer camp isn't really summer camp today, she thinks to herself.

 

It's way too cold for summer right now, so perhaps it's more of an autumn-camp. Or a winter camp, those time where people rarely enjoy camping because it's not the right temperature and everything natural is leaving.

 

In any case, Hikari is happy she brought a jacket and that it's cold enough to keep the camp supervisors focusing on firewood and not on the tree she has foolishly decided to climb and look at the sky upon.

 

The sky looks like it's going to break.

 

It just might. The poor sky.

 

In her bones, something rattles. And she gasps for breath very abruptly and smiles.

 

Here we are, she hears in her mind. Here we are, now come to our side. Fly!

 

Fly!

 

She has no wings to fly.

 

We will give you wings.

 

You must.

The snow falls and she runs to shelter, trying not to smile from the childish urge to roll in it and make an angel to show Taichi on her camera. He would love it.

 

Though this will make it harder to find pinecones.


	3. 1:3

1.3

The puppy calls itself Plotmon.

She takes it in stride.

She hasn't forgotten  _that day_ , though Taichi did because he was little and silly and not very wise. She didn't blame him because he was hurt and traumatized and a good boy, but seeing this place made her want to pump a fist in the air and cheer because she was  _right_.

She doesn't, but welcomes the creature into her arms anyway. It snuggles close, and for some reason cries, and Hikari just smiles like nothing's wrong. She doesn't mind. Sometimes Taichi cries for no reason, and doing that isn't always wrong.

She hopes he's okay, and that his cold will get better, and that she'll figure out where she is before he grows up.


	4. 1:4

1.4

Hikari doesn't know what to think of the others. They haven't been around each other like this, and it's hard to get used to.

Yamato is awkward and easy to make unhappy, but Takeru makes him smile when he thinks that he's unhappy and Takeru is kind and shy and sweet. A good boy, but also a little spoiled and afraid, and that's okay. Maybe he would be Taichi's friend when they got back. Taichi made friends easily.

Sora is too much of a boy, Hikari realizes, too much of a girl trying to be a boy, and conflicts heavily with herself and what she might want. Mimi is too soft-edged with no ability to heal from the rough patches. The girls seem to complement each other, and in that Hikari finds a little solace. One less thing to worry about... for the moment.

It's Jyou and Koushiro who worry her the most. Their Digimon aside, Koushiro has all the empathy of a mouse being chased by a cat. And Jyou is so nervous he is practically trembling himself out of his sweater. What can make a person so nervous?

More importantly, what can help him out of it?

Hikari is no authority figure, and she knows it. She's too bookish, too in the clouds, too sensitive to everything and everyone. However, the sad part is, she's the best they have, and Plotmon is also stronger than any of them.

Oh, sorry,  _Tailmon_ , now. She doesn't know why that's important, but it is. She had always called the big Digimon 'Koromon', even though he was apparently Greymon towards the end of things. Well, that's just strange.

But she takes it in stride, and maybe that's enough to make her a commanding force because when she says they need to keep walking and find some cover in case of any more giant flying beetles, no one protests, not even Jyou, and they walk until they see a bus and there's nowhere else to go for the night.

This isn't easy, and she wishes it was.


	5. 1:5

1.5

That evening isn't too bad, all things considered, except Yamato gets upset with her for some reason that she doesn't really register and Takeru begins to cry about him being mean and she sits him down and says no, he isn't, he's a good older brother and he gets confused sometimes. This makes Yamato worse somehow and he walks off in a flustered huff. Gabumon goes after him without a second thought and Takeru just cries harder and Hikari is left with the sniffling boy in her arms and humming a lullaby she had once given her baby brother when he had gotten such a bad case of chicken pox he wailed until he lost his voice.

She takes it well. She has to or she will go on a rampage worthy of her mother and it will not end well.

"H-He shouldn't have yeh-helled at you," Takeru whimpers, and Patamon leans on his back, shy and confused but trying to cheer him up with a head-hug.

"You shouldn't cry, or he really  _will_  yell at me. He's just your big brother and he's still learning how to be a big brother." Tailmon looks at her at those words but she only smiles and hums some more.

She's not surprised that only hours later, Yamato saves Takeru from a sea monster, and blushes the whole rest of the night about it.

Perhaps that lack of surprise is the problem.


	6. 1:6

1.6

They are separated by a demon.

The demon makes her skin crawl and eyes burn and she just wants to pull the rest of the group behind her and  _snarl_  because that thing is the enemy and it needs to burn and die and  _she does not like it_.

She's for once happy Taichi isn't here (even though she misses his bright smile) because he would go out and  _fight_ it even though he shouldn't.

She's not helpless but when the first person she finds is Yamato and not Takeru and he's disappointed, she gets angry and punches him, hard.

He's surprised, but he punches back.

It takes forever for her to calm down but by that time they're both bleeding and with swollen cheeks and she feels a little better about herself because taking that stupid male anger just because she's a  _quiet_ girl is just obnoxious. It's not her fault that Takeru takes well to her and Yamato doesn't know how to make it work. Taichi will like him, she knows, but right now it's getting pretty clear in her mind that she will never really get along with Yamato and that forcing it will get her nowhere.

She glares at him a little less and is again very happy her baby brother isn't here.

He wants to fight everything, she's not supposed to.

Sometimes that isn't the case.


	7. 1:7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> End of arc 1 :)

1.7

Leomon is very kind.

When he's not possessed by the demon.

And the demon is strong. It is strong and for some reason evil and it wants to take away Takeru and everyone else. She doesn't know why this makes her continue to see red but she sees blood every time Tailmon gets knocked down or the others are thrown aside like tree branches. She sees red and fire and feels power beneath her fingers and skin but it doesn't know where to go or what to do. The demon seems to know this because it can't seem to touch her when she's bent over her injured cat or running to protect Takeru. (She knows she shouldn't do this because Takeru needs to be a big boy and be brave but she can't help herself.)

Even though the demon can't, the thing he's holding hostage can and it does so with ease, knocking her into a tree so hard she swears she gets a concussion. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, she tries to stand up anyway because if any of them die, well...

" _Onee-chan, are you okay? Please wake up! Onee-chan!"_

She knows what the feeling must be like, and to let any of the others experience it is not right and Takeru shouldn't die because of this crazy guy.

So she tries to get up and Tailmon tries to get up even though it's absolutely useless because the demon is too close to the small child and it  _hurts_  to be this helpless-

But the world is full of light and the strange Digivice on her belt sings with it. The power running through her skin rushes out all at once and she feels sad all of a sudden, very sad at the sight of the angel that soars through the air and very proud of him because she knows this is his only dance.

Even though the demon laughs, she bristles, and for the first time, she feels Tailmon, her Tailmon, bristle with her and they are both angry for reasons they don't understand. But then it passes and she calms and her partner calms and the sun rises.

The sun rises on the dead partner and Takeru screaming and Hikari, in a burst of authority, pushes Yamato to hug his little brother instead of just stand there, while she climbs the mountain alone.

She doesn't wait for the others to talk to her, to ask what to do. She should, she knows, but she can't.

Hikari already has ideas anyway, and those first involve calming down, calming down and listening to the beat of her own heart.

She sighs and the sound shakes her in some part of herself.

"Sorry, Taichi," she says to no one. "Your Onee-chan has some things to do."

And one of them is to fight on.


	8. 2-1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arc 2: Waves

2.1

Hikari watches Takeru cradle an egg in his small arms and wonders  _when?_

She watches Mimi cry and Jyou attempt to understand why and Koushiro peek from behind his computer screen to look at the others. She watches Sora try to smooth Yamato's ruffled feathers and the Digimon work together because they're always been friends and not even the problems of their human partners can tear them apart. All except Tailmon, who stands off to the side, awkward and confused and not sure if she belongs. She never asks Hikari about it, but just stays by her stubbornly and even shyly refuses the others when they try to intervene.

Hikari wonders why, though she vaguely has the answer in the back of her mind because someone whispers it to her in her dreams, but she lets it go and goes back to work on the boat.

An old man said they had to leave, and they had no other leads but him and it was an honest to goodness pain.

She probably bothers them, Hikari realizes belatedly. She takes things in stride (for the most part) and doesn't hate or invest herself in things too heavily. She cares and it hurts, but no more than that. She is an outsider like her partner and it doesn't really matter because her little brother matters to her more than her own happiness.

Self-sacrificing? Possibly. She doesn't mind too much. It is better than being helpless.

The power is still under her hands, waiting to be spoken into existence, waiting to answer the questions likely brewing in the other children's heads. But Hikari doesn't let it in, no matter the whispers, because it isn't time and it isn't right. And no one will listen. Taichi hadn't listened, and he was open-minded and eight and... oh gods she was tired of wondering and questioning herself and her faith in things.

When Patamon is born again maybe, when the Crests are found maybe. For now, it can't happen because she'll hurt herself in doing it and no one will understand why.

_'I got hit by a truck while sick and it gave me psychic powers.'_

She knows how well those words sound in a storybook and the real world isn't much better.

So for now she keeps silent, waits for more visions, more voices. She waits for Takeru to smile again and unwind Yamato from the trap he's caught himself into.

Speaking as an older sister, self-pity doesn't work.

  
  



	9. 2-2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, wow, my bad. Um... I keep forgetting to cross post. I'm really sorry about that. XD Update now.

2.2

There are eight Tags in the box. It perturbs her.

She has a niggling feeling in her heart, but decides not to act on it it. If her suspicions are true, then the gods and goddesses will regret vexing her.

But for now, her baby brother is probably home coughing, or she's on a missing person's list. He's safe and that's all she cares about right now with that. Still, she pockets the eighth, takes a deep breath, and turns back to the insane battle about her. All the while, her Digivice glows and the voice whispers and whispers.

The others stare at her endless peaceful facade and she wants to scream but doesn't.

The rift grows wider but she smiles at it and pretends it's okay.

It isn't, she knows it, and it hurts. But it's better because she knows if she doesn't step up and keep everybody at least focused on going where they're going, the demon will get back in their heads and they will break.

They can't break.

Hikari has been sure of very little since the demon killed the angel, but she has always been sure of that. They can't break or run or turn away.

The others have to face reality as it is.

So does she.

But how? And what is her reality?

"Come on," she says. "We need to get out of here."

They follow her, but it's unlikely to be out of loyalty.

"Still think it's gross to be in a whale's mouth," Mimi mutters as Whamon swims away. Sora looks torn between amused and disdainful, and for a moment, Hikari wonders. Then she puts it out of her head and watches Jyou repack his first-aid kit. He's muttering what would be obscenities from anyone else and Koushiro simply observes. He's probably interested, in that professor kind of way. Yamato has pulled Takeru somewhere else, even though Poyomon is eager to be around the others. She groans, as soft as she can, and it catches Gabumon's attention. He makes his way over, leaving Yamato to whatever he is saying.

"Um... why don't you talk much?"

His question is shy and he probably regrets even asking it already.

Hikari shrugs and smiles. "Why don't you?"

He nods, taking this as it is. Gabumon was smart, probably the only one who saw Tailmon as a fellow, and not a... threat? Possible. "Everyone thinks you're strange," he admits.

"I am," she says, hearing Mimi try to explain to Palmon the importance of a soft bed. "It's probably why I don't talk much."

"Tailmon didn't either."Tailmon bristles for only a moment before Gomamon, easily bored walks over and agrees.

He winks at her, cheerful as ever."Well, ya didn't. Don't now either."

Tailmon shrugs, but the gleam in her eyes is teasing. "Not like you made good conversation."

He puffs up, rather like a blowfish. "I'm an  _excellent_  person to talk to! Right, Jyou?"

"Um..."

Everyone laughs and though the rift is still there, it's nice for the Digimon to try and close it.

They are smart creatures, after all.


	10. 2-3

2.3

They get attacked by a monkey.

The Gods are taking the mickey, she swears it.

Tailmon is already lashing her tail and Hikari is trying not to laugh but the other Digimon see him as a credible threat and are quick to say "RUN!" at the top of their lungs and she listens because heck, this is bad to listen to, let alone fight. Besides, even with Patamon hatched, they're technically still a man down and no one wants that  _bad thing_  to happen again and so they flee into the depths of a cave. She clutches the Tag around her neck in hopes that hers might be down here in some convenient twist.

But she probably has no chance of that being likely in a hundred lifetimes, so she shakes her head, picks up Tailmon, and runs for her life. Because they just might die down here if they aren't fast enough.

 _Oh hell,_  she thinks with delirious fear.  _Oh hell, I am going to die and so are they and it will somehow be on my head-_

Then the Tag in her pocket glows and burns as she gets closer and she wants to pull it out and hold it tight against her chest because then she is certain, positively  _sure_ of everything but the finer details and it's kind of scary. She pulls it out anyway and holds it to a disturbing wall and her fingers shriek with pain and acknowledgment at the sight of the orange crest going where it is safe.

But not where it belongs.

If she can help it, it is not going there.

Well, for now, she can't help anything except make sure the other six and their partners get through the wall before she does. (Tailmon breaks some stairs for good measure.)

_Where's mine?_

The thought is sent to the stars but there is no answer and she rolls her eyes.

_Torment me with psychic visions but tell me nothing._

Well, forget you too then.


	11. 2-4

2.4

She is not handling this very well, this leadership.

For some reason she is angry and this anger is almost always pulsing underneath her hands and feet. She is not allowed to be angry, no because they all look at her for answers and for things to be all right under every circumstance, even though they hate that she does nothing but smile and look content like a doll.

Nothing changes. She can't appease them.

Sometimes she wants to smack Jyou upside the head because Mimi is really trying her hardest to be brave and he's having all the sensitivity of a dying animal because he wants to be responsible for everyone and show the adults that  _aren't_ there that look, he is the oldest and he is a good, competent person.

Sometimes she wants Yamato to stop growling at everyone and for someone to give Koushiro a few minutes because he may be smart but he's not  _okay_  and it doesn't take a genius observer to notice that.

Sometimes she wishes Sora would catch on from her hinting to  _'do-something'_ because being the leader to them means she isn't allowed to get too close and it's absolutely obnoxious that the girl instead sits there, hemming over something that she's only emulating herself.

Takeru has not gotten better from Patamon dying. Even though his friend is back to Tokomon, the kid is still morose and quick to pitch a fit and Hikari can only guess at why. She is sure Yamato would know better but Yamato seems to be subscribing under the 'I-am-trying-to-be-cool' disposition and is getting absolutely nowhere.

She guesses their parents are divorced.

"It will get better, Takeru," she tells him, because it's always been true for her at least.

"But it will never be all right," he says, determined to be miserable. Tailmon scoffs quietly and Hikari only smiles, because it's hard to be angry at a child.

It doesn't quite bother her, though she guesses it would be a bother to them. Or a horrible thing, depending how it had gone. She loves her parents, though Papa still drinks too much on weekends and Mama sometimes is a little too protective of  _her_  instead of Taichi, when Taichi is the one who is always getting hurt.

Granted, she  _is_  the girl.

Which makes her angry too.

She can't do this.

She has to pretend to.


	12. 2-5

2.5

She pretends until there is nothing left.

Even if she doesn't snap, Tailmon snaps and she's obviously scaring the others and she really doesn't care because the pain in her chest is almost making it hard to walk. Sometimes she almost falls where they can't see her, sometimes she does fall and ignores the pain because they just have to keep running.

"We need to go."

"Hikari-chan, everyone is exhausted!"

"Then catch up to me."

Tailmon never protests, and Hikari never asks her opinion, just gets it once in a while with small coughs and punches to her stomach so she sits down and eats more than a mouthful and sleeps for more than an hour. She's running herself ragged and in turn, Tailmon does the same. Tailmon is a monster, but she is a monster that is loyal to Hikari and Hikari finds that as the days goes by that's all she cares about now in regards to herself.

She hasn't smiled in weeks.

The others are whispering about her.

She doesn't care because they don't say anything to her face and that means who cares? That means they're too afraid to stick up for themselves andeven if that excuses nothing their apathetic way gets them absolutely nothing too.

Her dreams are horrible. Horrible and bloody and sickening and telling them will only make them come true.

Yamato does punch her again but she doesn't respond in turn after the first couple of times. She thinks it's for Takeru's sake and then she thinks it's just because she doesn't care.

They won't die, they won't.

 


	13. 2-6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trying to get caught up on this site. XD

2.6

They enter an arena together and it is too much like a mix of a Roman deathmatch and her brother's soccer games for her to feel at home. Her steps are getting weaker and Tailmon is constantly prodding her with her claws to keep her awake and it's only barely working. Then Etemon appears on a large screen.

He brags, he laughs, he's cruel. It's nothing new.

Then below his screen, the ground opens and a creature rises.

On the other side of the arena is a black Tailmon.

It's laughing.

The others are debating what to do and shouting at Etemon (like that's going to work!) to be quiet and she's just processing, slowly processing and it's taking too long.

"Come on, pretty girl," he croons. "Don't you want to dance with me?"

Tailmon goes before her common sense can kick in and stop her and by the time it does, she's seeing red through Tailmon's eyes and the punches are hitting her in the stomach, the chest.

Though she feels it, she can't scream because Tailmon isn't screaming.

Hikari realizes something is wrong with her.

"Tailmon!" she shouts, trying to grab some control of herself, of the spiral she has fallen into. "To me! To me, now!"

She can't. Hikari realizes that too late and begins to shake in fury. But her partner looks at her with the grim look of someone who knows they might die, and  _howls_.

Her Tailmon is beaten bloody and screaming for Hikari to stand up and  _kill that thing_ , and she moves and she runs because she has the urge to  _do that_  until everyone pulls her back for a second. She flails with pain and rage and barely notices Takeru trying to get the others off of her because he understands.

She has no Crest and the others are finding theirs too fast.

And the demon is coming.

This demon is every dark color and every black thing in hearts and all Hikari's heart wants to do right now is turn black.

Tailmon screams as the doppelganger comes closer, as Etemon laughs from his safe place. She screams and screams and the sound turns from pain to triumph, a savage triumph that is followed by a pitch black void engulfing the cat and transforms into a beautiful woman.

A beautiful woman with fangs.

Hikari slumps in her spot, as the energy that had been steadily draining out of her in the past few weeks is completely gone. Her vision is clouding, she can't hear anyone crying, and the void of unconsciousness claims her so quickly she thinks she's dying.


	14. 2-7

2.7

She awakes with Plotmon a mess of tears and giggling hysteria and doesn't ask.

The others aren't looking at her, though she doesn't quite concern herself with it as much as she should. The silence is awkward, everyone's Digimon is being carefully patched up by a skittish Jyou, and no one is looking at her.

Hikari doesn't speak, merely looks at her partner and hums in her ear. She can barely sit up, heck, she can barely  _breathe_ without her ribs protesting. She doesn't ask for forgiveness or understanding; she wouldn't want to do it if she was in their shoes.

So she doesn't ask for it and doesn't explain. If anyone will ask, they will ask when they are not so distraught or angry or hurt or confused.

In short, they will ask after she has utterly destroyed her own sense of self-worth, likely.

 _Stupid,_ she says to herself.  _Always doing things by yourself, going too far. Stupid!_

Her thoughts continue in this track, even as the others whisper to each other and Jyou nervously goes to check her for a fever and any injuries of her own. She is compliant, but does not eat when offered. She thinks she'll vomit or worse, be unable to swallow.

It is Takeru, unsurprisingly, who breaks the silence later, as well as the unspoken line. He crosses it, ignoring his brother. His bright blue eyes still have that tinge of darkness of loss and the anger is back in her heart again, wondering how far the sadness in his heart really goes, and how Yamato can simply not see it. Or maybe he does.

God help him if he does.

"What happened?" His tone is not innocence, but sadness and accusation and childlike adultness. He is wise where her brother is simply worldly, and she only sighs.

"Me," she says gently. "Me and my darkness."

"Why?" When Hikari gives him a puzzled smile, he says. "Everyone's always saying nothing hurts you and makes you sad or bothered cause you don't say so and that they don't like it, but now something did." He frowns. "And they still don't like it."

"Did you like it?"

He shakes his head. "No... Tailmon attacked everyone."

"Bastemon," the puppy giggles, hysterical still. "You were in the way. You were!"

"Shh," Hikari says urgently, watching Takeru's eyes.

The boy only nods. "Saying stuff like that, ripping that other cat apart, it took ages for her to stop. Everyone got hurt. No," he says, tears rising and not falling. "No, I didn't like that at all!"

Hikari nods, taking it in, taking deep breaths. Plotmon chants in her arms, the word 'kill' made out in happy low tones that are making Tokomon cringe.

"But!" he says, clenching his fists. "I don't like what everyone's doing either!"

She almost catches the others start from their places on the other side of the fire. She agrees with them. "P-Pardon?"

Takeru shakes his head, fists even tighter and Tokomon nodding his head in a vehement sort of gesture. "You hide stuff all the time and they just kept hiding from you that they didn't like it. They just got upset if something was wrong with  _them_! And they never said anything to you either! Something is bothering you and you are sad and I see it but they just say 'leave you alone'!"

He's worked himself up into tears and she smiles a little sadly and takes off his hat to pet his mess of blond hair. Plotmon is still giggling and crying but it is quieter now and though Hikari can still feel things are wrong, it's almost out of them, though their crest remains unfound and unknown. The others don't move and she wants to spit at them but doesn't.

"Why did you not tell us something was wrong?" he finally says, sniffling, making it quiet enough that she can pretend it's her.

 _Nobody notices._ Hikari doesn't have to think about the answers too hard. "Because I was scared," she says, smiling. "Because I've tried telling people a lot and they don't ever believe me. So I'm scared to even bother. It's just easier to keep it all in my head."

"I'll believe you."

She forces herself to sit up. Pain is an understatement. "I know. I know you will. But not yet. I'm not sure. I can't tell anyone anything until I'm  _sure._ "

"Sure of what, huh?" Yamato had come over, the most aggressive, the most willing to stand up to her calm face and punch it. "Sure that you won't go off in a reckless rage and get us killed?"

_They won't die! They won't!_

She says nothing and Plotmon just continues to chant in her arms.

The word isn't 'kill' anymore. 'Protect, protect, protect.'

She goes back to sleep and lets them chew on that.


	15. 2-8

2.8

They don't forgive for a while and Hikari never asks them to. She lets them make decisions and focuses on recovering and dreaming and coaxing Plotmon back to something recognizable to the others. Sometimes the Digimon move closer to her, while the others remain just out of reach and she doesn't mind too much.

"Are you all right, piyo?" Piyomon will say to Plotmon sometimes, always surprised to find herself bigger than the little puppy again. The animal will just give a fanged smile and nod from her arms and that will be enough. She glares at every other child she sees that isn't hers or Takeru. At most she feels guilty about disliking him. Likely, however, it's because he is harmless enough and the others are not.

The others whisper about Plotmon too. It's almost funny

What they don't understand is that Plotmon is a monster.

The others are monsters too but she knows her Tailmon has something wrong, like she herself has something wrong. And she wishes she knew why.

But again, she keeps her mouth shut and no one but Takeru asks and whenever he asks, she is too tired to answer other than tell him "bad things". She is still having nightmares and they are painful and sad and bloodier than they were before Bastemon, but she says nothing, even when they meet Piximon and he waves his spear in her direction.

He knows and she knows and she doesn't have time to satisfy curiosity.

Eventually, the others insist that she make suggestions and get back in the group. Hikari does it only to satisfy them and make them think. They know it and she doesn't care. She wants to care but she is still not sleeping well and her chest hurts and she misses home.

Regardless, they start to trust her again.

In the back of her mind, the angels whisper.

_Fly or die._

Aren't they the same thing?


	16. 2-9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Arc two complete! Interlude next! Enjoy!

2.9

"We might just be data projections."

Despite the fact that this is the least formal word choice she has heard from Koushiro in what feels like weeks, or more likely ever, Hikari shivers anyway at the thought because the implications are terrible.

_Looking down on his crying face, her still body, almost going up into the sky and never coming back, she feels too much peace and not enough fear-_

_So why did she come bac_ k?

She asks herself that question as the others take in the potential theory and some part of herself breaks and disappears into the void that is her heart. Even as the others get their crests and they run from Etemon (all they seem to do is run these days) she wonders why she came back when she could have just died.

But then Etemon really does try to kill them.

_(What took him so long?)_

And she knows.

Because Sora is kidnapped and almost thrown into a pit. Because Tailmon feels her helplessness and anger and seethes so much her body glows white. She isn't afraid, for all of her anger. She wants to win and to defeat, to protect. Because that is what she is. She is a protector. Tailmon strikes, once, twice, a third time and the monkey is thrown into a distortion strong enough that the wind begins to warp wrongly.

Because Takeru is screaming again, and Jyou is futilely trying to grab onto the blue jacket Hikari is wearing to pull her back from the energy blasts that are trying to pass through her and tear her apart.

Because she hears someone crying, and maybe it is Mimi, and maybe it is Taichi, or it even could be Tailmon.

It doesn't matter who, but someone is crying. She came back to stop the crying.

And she always will.

When the world lets out a great roar like a giant's yawn, and Tailmon leaps to smack a glowing fist into Etemon's face, Hikari reaches after her with a useless Tag and a glowing Crest meant for someone else and she's gone.


	17. 2.5-1

2.5-1

She finds herself on a sweltering street. Plotmon is panting on the ground, gasping for air and yawning like she could sleep for a year. Probably could.

Hikari is confused. This isn't the Digital World. This is too familiar, too safe.

This is home.

And when she realizes this, it hurts. It hurts enough to make her cough for breath like when-

_There are too many sirens and too many shouts and her brother is crying when he doesn't like to cry-_

Things were once really bad.

"Hikari?" Plotmon says shyly and Hikari looks down at her, knees trembling but not giving out and she is grateful to see her friend pretending like it isn't happening. "Where are we?"

Hikari wants to giggle until she cries but then a pressing important smacks her in the back of the head. "We're home, Plotmon," she says, still wanting to giggle. "We're at my home and there's someone important I want you to meet."

Her puppy yawns. "That's nice," she says and winks at her partner. "Does that mean we're going somewhere it isn't so hot?"

Hikari chuckles and fingers the camera at her neck that she doesn't always remember is there. "I think that can be arranged."

"Good, because right now I'm regretting having fur."

Hikari giggles again, trying to remember the last time she's laughed without fear of tears.

It's probably been a while.


	18. 2.5-2

2-5.2

"Koromon wasn't a puppy."

Hikari agrees with her brother as she swirls the eggs in the skillet, wishing her parents had thought to leave rice out because her brother is a  _pig_  when he gets sick and would probably eat the house out of sugar if he could stand up that high. Plotmon agrees as well, but for a very different reason.

"I'm  _much_  stronger than a pink blob with teeth!"

Her voice is haughty and amused and Hikari thinks her partner is preening over there near her brother's clumsily petting hands. She swears his only grace is on the soccer field and with people. She is happy, however, because the shadow is really out of her friend's eyes now and there is nothing but light.

Perhaps the shadow has left them both, if for a moment.

The Crest in her jacket pocket burns and she ignores it, placing a plate in front of child and Digimon and she will never tell her partner how funny the scene is until they're back in the Digital World.

But will they go back?

"Onee-chan," Taichi says through a mouthful of eggs. "You look bad." She nods at him. "Is camp bad? Is that why you're here?"

"Wasn't at camp, Taichi," she says with a smile, even though he knows. Even though he's only trying to puzzle out his enigma of a sister.

He shrugs. "You still look bad. Did that guy Yamato beat you up?" He looks at her cheek, which is no longer swollen, but probably is a little more red than the rest of her face even now. His brown eyes turn steely and angry and she imagines that if he were three years older it would actually be a little scary.

Hikari winks, to put the edge off, and to keep Plotmon from speaking and saying yes. "You should have seen  _him_."

His mouth opens wide and he, for some reason, gapes like a fish. She's happy to note that his feverish face is down from this morning, but he drinks the honeyed tea anyway. "Onee-chan!  _You_  aren't supposed to fight!"

She smiles, a little mischief in her eyes. "I couldn't just let him keep walking on me. You know that." Hikari hesitates. "Some fights are important, after all. Some can't be lost."

Taichi nods. She knows he's not thinking of the soccer games where he's injured his ankles. Hikari can see him try to recall the day when they were both very small, the day he had tried to be big and responsible and grown-up because his sister was not.

He's trying to recall both of her bad days, and knowing Taichi, those memories are all blurring into each other.

"You're here now," he finally says, putting it aside. "Are you going to go back?"

Hikari thinks, and sips her tea.

"I don't know," she admits.

_I need to go back._


	19. 2.5-3

2.5-3

"Onee-chan should stay here."

He probably is hoping she's asleep on the couch while he talks to Plotmon. Taichi likely knows she isn't. Slow, not unobservant is her little brother. But she keeps her eyes closed and her breaths are deep and slow, pretending for his sake.

Plotmon, for her slow return to a bearable creature instead of a wild machine, is not amused. At least she is gentle. "She... she has to."

"Why?"

Goodness, she's starting to hate the question  _why._

Plotmon frowns, as though agreeing with her. "Your sister's special." As if that explains everything.

Taichi bounces on the wood floor. "Well, duh," he says, clearly grinning. Then he settles back on the floor, listening to her breathe. "But something bad happened there. Onee-chan is strong. She's... always pretending to be stronger." His voice grows very quiet. "Whenever I need her to help me, or when mom and dad are frustrated and about to do something they'll regret, she's always, always there. And now..." He thinks, searching for words and giving up. "She's all used up now." He stomps his foot. It's quieter than it could be, but loud in the room. "I don't want her to go back to a place that does that."

"But she has to," Plotmon says, sounding not frustrated, but agitated. Hikari thinks they are alike, unable to use the words that grown-ups just have. "Everyone is there. They probably think she's dead. They  _need_  her." At least her partner recognizes that, for all of her liking of the others.

"I don't care." Taichi doesn't sound angry or upset when he says this, and that scares the older girl She wonders if this was what she was like before Tailmon became Bastemon, or even after. "I don't," he repeats softly. "Onee-chan is sicker than I am. They need to fix themselves instead of make her do it. If they don't, she might die. She'll wear herself out and die!"

"Hikari is stronger than that."

Taichi's hair swishes as he shakes his head. "No," he says in that soft voice that she knows he uses when he's really well and truly stuck on a subject, and now she knows he's still remembering. "Onee-chan is the strongest. But... but..."

In the midst of him being unable to explain himself, Hikari breathes loudly. "It wasn't your fault, Taichi."

"It was!" He whips around, glaring at the arm of the sofa where her head is.

He's going to cry, she can feel him wanting to cry and blames a part of it on him being sick because he usually has better control of himsel. The rest is his massive guilt complex that she can't take him to a therapist to talk out. Because culture is ridiculous sometimes.

" _Taichi._ " She rolls off the couch and kneels to face his teary eyes. As she does, she tugs at the goggles looped around his neck. "I'm a big girl. I make my own mistakes. I don't blame you. I should have known better. I am the big sister."

"Stop that!" he shouts and she only shakes her head.

"I will not stop," Hikari informs him, grinnng. "It is a big sister's job to tell their little brothers when they are being silly." She picks him up, a little too easily for his taste, and carries him back into their shared bedroom. "Come on now, stop making yourself upset. If you don't get a little better before Mom and Dad get back, there's going to be more to worry about than me being here."

He scowls, but it is a brief look quickly replaced with a smile. "I want to go with you where you're going."

Hikari feels the spare Tag and Crest burn. "I don't know if you can."

"I will," he insists. "I'll find a way. No matter what. Onee-chan's always protected me. I want to protect you."

She musses his hair and kisses his forehead. "Get better before you have grand dreams like that."

"I can dream whatever I want!"

"I know."

She does. And that scares her too.


	20. 2.4-4

2.5-4

"We need to find a way."

"I'm not Koushiro, Plotmon."

Her partner sighs. Hikari rolls her eyes gently. She knows what her partner thinks of the others. She can't blame her for it, but she doesn't have to like it now. "You could talk to them some more. Even I talk to them." Sometimes.

"They're scared of me," Plotmon says. The words are a like a lemon and Hikari shakes her head. "I evolved before them. I've been stronger than them since we were little, since before everything went bad. I was always off doing that, getting stronger."

Hikari raises an eyebrow. "How come?"

Plotmon shrugs her forepaws. "Because I almost died, I guess."

Hikari goes still. She feels like she's going to vomit but suppresses it. Plotmon looks at her and she shakes her head. "Was it Kuwagamon?"

Plotmon pads over on the couch to sit on her lap. "I'd be not here if it was," she replies, snuggling closer to Hikari's arm. "I dunno who it was. I wish I did. It was dark, and I was bored." She giggles, that hysterical laugh that has been too common lately. "Shouldn'ta gotten bored." Her voice changes, faster, colder, and Hikari imagines that night, likely a moonless one. "Went wandering past where we got water. Got lost. Met some bats. Lots of little, screeching bats. They attacked. I ran."

She giggles again, and she has started to babble. "They caught me."

Hikari strokes her head but she is only barely listening now.

Slow, tottering steps. Her brother is calling, his voice somewhere in the stratosphere as he runs. He wants her to... play? Go to the hospital? Something about somewhere.

"They all start biting!" She squeals these words in Hikari's ear. "Bite and drink, there's not enough of me for them and I started to get-"

Dizzy. Really dizzy and it's hard to see and breathe and she's still-

"Trying to keep moving because I think I can do that but then I just-"

Fall over and then something roars and she really can't see anymore.

"After that, I dunno." Her partner shrugs. "I think I remember expecting to die. I think I remember being kind of sad, a faraway sad, like I was going somewhere else instead of just-"

Dying forever. Someone is screaming and it's probably Taichi and it's hard to move and breathe, why is that?

"Funny thing," Plotmon says, her voice no longer hysterically delighted, but like a permanent stomachache. "I didn't. They-the bats- left me, and I should have been gone. But I didn't go. It was weird. I woke up ages and ages later and I was Plotmon and the others were looking at me kind of strangely ever since- Hikari?" She nudges her with her oversized head. "Hikari, are you all right?"

Hikari is shaking in her seat on the couch, shaking and covering her face with one hand.

Then she lets out an insane giggle of her own and realizes that she is-

"No, Plotmon," she says, smiling. "I'm not all right. Give me a while."

She doesn't have a while.

She wishes she did.


	21. 2.5-5

2.5-5

That explains a lot.

It explains  _too much_ , actually and Hikari finds she is still nauseated but her brother is finally asleep and that would wake him up. So she takes a few deep breaths and finds that distant part of herself that handles things. It takes a few moments to detach the nausea from the realization, and she is slowly able to think clearly again.

"Your brother's nice," her partner says after a while, sitting in her lap and sticking her tongue out at Miko the cat whenever she comes near. Hikari nods, stroking her back, dangerously close to her butt. "Don't tweak my tail."

"It's a nub, there's nothing to tweak," Hikari protests, giggling, trying to be okay.

Plotmon huffs. "To me, it's a tail." She recovers so quickly; it's actually a little scary.

"All right, all right..."

Her partner, accepting her understanding, bats near Miko's nose. "Anyway, your brother worries about you, a lot. Are you sure he's not supposed to be the older one?"

Hikari chuckles. "He tends to fret over me because I never do it for myself. It's all right, I usually worry about him more. He likes running into things."

"So do you sometimes."

"We  _are_ siblings, after all."

Plotmon shrugs. She doesn't really grasp siblings like she grabs 'closeness' so Hikari leaves her be and focuses instead on the Digivice on her belt. It hasn't glowed once, and that worries her.

Then, very suddenly, it shrieks.

The television, having been on as background noise, shuts off abruptly in unison with the computer turning on. Hikari barely gives Plotmon a chance to scramble off her towards the monitor before she's up and moving, looking at the slowly forming image of...

"Koushiro-kun?"

The picture blurs and fades out of focus, but she knows that red hair and those dark eyes anywhere. Yet they gleamed with so little now. What had happened?

_"-You're- good to see-"_

"What's wrong with you?" she tries not to shout, but her brother's feet are padding out of bed and she is very grateful she put him on her bunk because he falls off half the time. "Koushiro-kun!"

Hikari realizes she sounds  _upset_.

Koushiro doesn't react, even the blur remains a dull frown and a lack of interest.

_"Don't-return- don't- all is-"_

It cuts off and her Digivice falls silent.

Hikari is silent a moment, looking at the calendar labeled August First.

" _Screw_  that," she then whispers to the nearly silent room.


	22. 2.5-6

2.5-6

She feels slightly ill as she makes her way through a cup of tea. Taichi remains in the room, looking at her with big, sad eyes and a deep frown. His goggles, the old birthday gift, glow in the afternoon sun.

The Crest burns.

"Don't go," he says. "We can all stay. One more pet is okay."

Thankfully, Plotmon doesn't bristle at being called a pet, but remains quiet in her lap, watching the human's eyes.

Hikari shakes her head. "They need me. I... I need them." Does she? Or does she just want the guilt to go away? Maybe she wants to need them.

"If I let you go, you won't come back."

"Yes, I will."

_I don't even know how I'm going to get there._

Then again, her little brother loves operating on the "where there's a will, there's a way" philosophy and in that probably assumes she's done the same.

The problem is, she doesn't know what she's done to get here or back, except that maybe the Digivice has caused this. And the angels haven't sung since she came here so she's mildly concerned that she's on her own.

Well, she's always been on her own.

Taichi scuffs his bare foot. "Will you really?"

Oh, screw this too.

She kneels at his side. "If I can find a way to go," Hikari says, solemn and mussing his poofing hair. "Then I can find a way to come back."She pinches his nose and he whines. "Come on, you're Yagami Taichi, the bravest kid ever. An inspiration to all on the soccer field and my precious baby brother." She laughs. "You can't be the only one who takes risks, right?"

He sticks out his tongue, but then he smiles. Hikari knows she's won, but the triumph is bitter.

Before he open his mouth and declare his intention to join her, cold or no cold, the ground shakes and the two of them topple to the floor.


	23. 2.5-7

2.5-7

Hikari doesn't think, she runs outside, partner at her heels and Taichi dumbstruck on the floor. Her face is tight as she hops stairs and almost falls on the concrete but she reaches the ground to see a Digimon crushing the side of an electronics store. It points its drill nose at her and charges. She moves to avoid it, finding herself faster than before and Plotmon leaps to her aid, howling at the creature so loudly she thinks there are wolves in another country looking up at it.

To her surprise, the sound waves ripple into the creature and it vanishes, leaving both human and Digimon horribly perplexed.

"Um... did I just see that?"

Plotmon growls. "We need to go back!" she declares, bristling and shaking. "Bad things are happening, Hikari! They shouldn't do that!" She snarls again as fireballs come towards them from behind and tackles her partner down. "Please, Hikari!" she pleads. "Give me power! I know..." Her face becomes ashen. "We messed up before! I don't know how we did and I don't care but we need to fight now! You don't have a Crest but you have a thing! A thing in your heart that makes us partners and strong! Come on! We have to protect your Taichi!"

Hikari peers over her partner's over-sized head to see her little brother running down the stairs, then looks back at Plotmon and nods. She'll berate the kid later, right now there is a monster shooting fire and that is _not okay._  Plotmon jumps to headbutt it in the face and Hikari whips around, Digivice screen glowing green.

Tailmon jumps back and turns towards something staring across the street of busy people who somehow are going on with their lives and not seeing a thing. (Except the children, Hikari realizes later, the children are all looking on in wonder and even a bit of fear.) It is an ogre, a Digimon that holds too much significance with the memory of  _the demon_  for her or Hikari to feel safe over. She waits for the light to turn green, if only so she doesn't hit anyone and fall. Then she launches herself forward, slashing into large eyes with her claws. The club swings towards her face and she is thrown to the side, almost into Taichi's frozen arms.

Hikari meanwhile is moving to pick up a piece of fallen rock. She throws, it misses, and she fires again. Taichi helps Tailmon stand up, looking at the expression on his sister's face. It's blazing, Hikari is bright and warm and just like her name right now.

Light.

Tailmon looks at him, her big blue eyes quiet, solemn. "Hikari is my Hikari too," she says. "She's going to help me. Just like you will help someone. I know it. Be brave." And she races forward once more, dodging the club.

"He's still solid," Hikari whispers, stepping forward. Taichi runs, grabbing at her free hand. At first, Hikari does not feel him there as she cries out. "Tailmon, uppercut him!"

The cat obeys and the earth quakes like a frightened child when the sky opens up like a great, circular mouth. The ogre is knocked into the air and begins to float, sucked up with nearby debris. Tailmon, having nothing to hold her down, is soon beginning to do the same.

She looks at Taichi as she vanishes. "Be brave."

The cat disappears and Hikari hesitates, feeling her brother's stubborn hand. The Crest is no longer burning, but Hikari turns and kneels to him. She pulls it out, and it pulses a soft orange on her palm. "Tailmon is right," she says to him, mussing his poof of hair one more time. "Be brave." She loops the Tag and Crest around his neck. "I'm sorry it's not a pinecone. I'll try to get one next time."

Hikari hesitates for only a second. Then she hugs him tight. "Onee-chan..." she hears Taichi say.

She doesn't let him see her tears. "Be strong Taichi. Wait for me. And feel better."

She lets him go and then turns, forcing herself to let go as cleanly as she had held on, raising her Digivice to the sky.

_Wait for me, everyone._


	24. 3-1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arc 3 begins!~

3.1

She touches down where they left, in the desert. It's empty, but this comes as no surprise. However long it has been since they left, the others probably gave up on her.

The idea is disheartening, but since Hikari hasn't given up on them, well, they'll just have to get used to her being back. Tailmon climbs up her arm and settles there, watching her eyes. "You look different, Hikari," she muses.

"So do you,"Hikari shoots back. "Less psycho."

Tailmon sticks out her tongue and they continue to walk. Tailmon's ears twitch as they walk in the sun. "Was it okay? Giving that to Taichi?"

"Mm..." Hikari smiles. "A long time ago... Taichi met a Koromon with me. I think, because of that, I met you. So, it wouldn't surprise me if Taichi had something special." She scratches under her friend's chin. "Didn't you tell him something like that?"

She could  _feel_ Tailmon flush. "He's your brother," she says softly. "I don't understand... 'brothers' very well, but I... understand family. A little. The others... I think they're family."

"When they're not afraid of you, you mean?"

"Then too."

Hikari smiles. "You  _can_  learn, can't you?"

" _Hikari!"_

They laugh, and everything is okay between them, and they walk until they reach grass and the smell of water, and Hikari thinks this will be very painful or completely painless.

Her spare change is on the former.

A voice whispers in her mind, singing of relief and warnings and truths.  _Become the Light._

She's actually happy for a sign that she's crazy again.


	25. 3-2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you random person who kudoed. It means a lot!

3.2

Tailmon hears Tokomon before they see him, and runs to the fanged bundle of adorable before Hikari can kneel and try to soothe his crying. She notes that before Tokomon cried very little, unless Takeru cried, and even then, he would try to be strong.

"You're here," he blubbers. "You're here, you're not gone! Takeru left! He left me and his Digivice and doesn't care anymore!"

Hikari pats him down and glances at Tailmon as the creature continues to speak, explaining so much and so little at once, claiming everyone drifted apart and no one was willing to wait and believe or anything. The cat shrugs and for a moment Hikari actually believes the little creature, not just because Tokomon is about as good of a liar as he is at eating less than his share, but because Takeru is eight, and all the eight-year-olds she knows and has ever known have a bit of a nasty streak in them, Taichi included, and sometimes that nastiness comes out on the wrong people. And sometimes children are simply wrong and whimsical but it hurts if they indulge in it.

"Can I go talk to him?"

Tokomon nods, sniffling back tears and plodding forward. Hikari admires the Digimon's gusto for a moment before following at a slower pace. Tailmon follows on all-fours. Her tail is lashing and Hikari struck by the emotions that slip between them like water. She leaves her face in a small, tight frown, but anger pulses in her frame in Tailmon's voice. It is a slightly crazed set of thoughts full of hurt and empathy and anger.

 _How dare you make my friend cry_ , she feels Tailmon hiss in the safety of her own head.  _How dare you trample on the one thing we ever knew?_

Melodramatic, but true.

For some reason, something in her chest hurts, but it's not Tailmon's roiling fury. It is something deeper, something she had never thought of.

There are tears in her eyes, and she stops, thinking about them. Tokomon and Tailmon turn.

She gives them a wet smile. "I'm all right... it just occurred to me, that's all."

"What did?" Tokomon is probably used to tears by now; his partner is such a crier.

She giggles and keeps walking. "It hurts when no one believes in you."

Tokomon nods. "And it's unfair."

"Quite."

_The world isn't fair._


	26. 3-3

3.3

She finds Takeru and the boy instantly tackles her by the legs and hugs them like they're going to disappear. He tells her that Yamato hates him and the others don't want him but the words sound too secondhand for Hikari to really consider them real.

But they are real to him, just like the Digimon have always been real to her.

"Could I be your little brother, Hikari-san?"

She isn't really sure if Yamato hates Takeru, because anybody who gets into a mild tizzy over the tears of family most certainly doesn't do anything of the sort, but whether PicoDevimon is telling the truth or not is at least a little irrelevant.  _Yamato,_  she thinks.  _Even I am more honest with my feelings than you, and I barely have any._

A lie is nothing without a little bit of truth.

"Neh, Takeru-kun, have you asked Yamato if what PicoDevimon said is true?"

Takeru shakes his head. "Hikari-san, he never came back! He said he would and he didn't! Please," he continues. "Let me be your brother..."

Hikari pats his head, smiling and humming under her breath. "Takeru-kun, that's not my decision to make."

"Why not?"

Hikari shrugs. "I dunno; the world's funny that way. And... what if we find Yamato? If you're suddenly calling me "Onee-chan", wouldn't that make things worse?"

Takeru frowns through tears, one of those puzzled kid-frowns that used to grace her face after she met Koromon until she grew up enough to smile instead. "I... yeah, I guess."

"Right?" Hikari kneels in front of him. "Takeru, I don't know if Yamato really hates you or not, I want to ask him that myself... but if he says he does and he means it, then I'll do my best to make you happy like I do my brother. But I can't ever replace Yamato. I'm not him. Is that okay?"

He nods and Hikari wonders if she's done the right thing.

Then arrives a small, spherical creature with wings. Tailmon hisses at him. She's too honest for her own good sometimes. He lands on the ground. In his face Hikari can see the remnants of surprise. He doesn't know her, didn't expect her.

That doesn't always mean much.

"Oh, are you Takeru's friend?"

The voice is honey-sweet and too easy-going. It makes her skin crawl and a voice like Bastemon purrs in her ear.

_You need to protect. It's a piece of the demon._

"Yep," she replies, smiling. Because, as this guy clearly knows, smiles work wonders. "Neh, where did you find Yamato-kun? I want to talk to him."

Tailmon's eyes are on him, tail whistling in the air. She clenches her clawed paws around Hikari's arm and grimaces. He doesn't react, or he tries not to anyway. "Well," he begins, shifting on the talons of his feet. "I can show you where he is, but it's pretty far away, and he might not be there anymore."

"Why are you making excuses?"

It feels good to be that blunt. She doesn't know why.

He flinches. "I-I'm not."

"You're not?"

Takeru cringes. Something is wrong with her.

The Digimon is stepping away from her. He is frightened somehow and she doesn't see why. Tailmon is smiling, a rather nasty smile. "Where is Yamato-kun?" she repeats, still steady, still not really angry.

"Wh-Why do you want to know?"

Tokomon speaks for her because she thinks it's rather obvious. "Because you said that mean stuff to Takeru!"

The Digimon looks at her now and she nods, still smiling. "Yamato-kun is bad at being honest about himself, but he tries. So I don't know if he would really say that or not. So I just want to ask him! Is that bad?"

"We-Well..." He shifts awkwardly, then seems to come to a new conclusion. "All right... I'll go find him! And then bring you there! But it could be a while, so we'll need some food!" He flies away, a bit too fast and Hikari frowns.

"What did I do?"

Takeru glances at her, then points to one of the theme park mirrors.

She looks into it and her eyes are blue. Blue where they should be almost red in their own way.

A cruel, unnatural blue.


	27. 3-4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the new kudo, random guest!

3.4

Takeru doesn't know why the creature was freaked out by her sudden change in eye color (which quickly returned to normal) but he does tell her he is called PicoDevimon. Hikari is instantly gripped with the urge to shake Takeru until his brain clicks again. That Digimon has the same name as the devil who killed the angel and he just listens to him?

Tailmon is trying to not hit the kid herself and instead looks at Tokomon. He shrugs, looking helpless and probably feeling sorry for himself for not being able to articulate the obviousness of it all. The complete magnitude of what Takeru did not observe in those moments is horrible and obvious and she feels a small sadness.

At the same time, every single older sister instinct is kicking in to teach correctness (is that how it's said?) to this little boy, so she picks him up and sets him in her lap. He squirms but seems happier about it than he should be.

He should really start looking at Tokomon. This is silly.

"Takeru-kun, why do you trust PicoDevimon?"

Takeru shrugs. "I dunno... He didn't seem bad."

"But Tokomon didn't like him."

"Tokomon was a bully!"

Tokomon whimpers and Tailmon lets out a soft hiss. Hikari shushes her. "He's right there, you know."

Takeru gives her a square, pouting glare. "He was! He got all mad at PicoDevimon for no reason! And you scared PicoDevimon too!"

Tailmon scowls. "You're lucky I didn't kill him."

Hikari gives a strained smile, ignoring this because it's Tailmon and she says this sort of thing all the time. "I really wasn't trying to scare him, Takeru, really. But..."

_He's the whisperer, the demon whisperer and he is evil._

"He makes me think of Devimon," she admits, looking to the sky with a solemn smile. Takeru cringes and instantly shakes his head.

He looks at her, big blue eyes desperate and trying to make her see something he could. "He wouldn't kill Tokomon."

Tokomon cringes and hides his white head and Tailmon shakes her own. "You don't have to kill to be bad, Takeru."

Takeru shakes his head, insistent. "He stayed. He was my friend."

"What if he lied about Yamato?"

"What if he did?" Takeru snaps, bursting out in a rage of a softly red face. "Even if he lied, Onii-chan still didn't come back! Everyone still isn't here! They abandoned me because they think I'm a baby!"

Hikari frowns, thinks about it, and decides on the blunt Taichi approach. "Well, I can see why." This stops him cold and Hikari shrugs, trying to look guilty and failing at it miserably. "You're just sitting here and crying... and you've been doing that a while I guess. And lashing out at Tokomon too... and he's your precious friend..." She tuts. "I don't think they did the right thing by all separating... but thinking you're a baby is a natural thought when you just sit here and make a fuss."

He stares at her, clearly utterly bewildered. Hikari sets him back on the concrete. "I'm staying with you Takeru-kun. It wouldn't be right for me to leave you here. But... you really do gotta put those big boy pants on. Your mom would probably be real sad seeing you like that. My mom wouldn't like that from me if I was your age."  _She'd be too busy wondering why I_ wasn't _bawling my eyes out, but I should keep that to myself._

"But... but what am I supposed to do?" Takeru finally,  _finally_  looks at Tokomon. "I tried to fight once! And Tokomon died! He  _died!_  All I do is make people leave me! What am I supposed to do about that?"

Hikari frowns. "Hmm..."

"See!" His triumph is bitter but he's clinging to it, clinging to his childish wants as hard as he can. "You can't think of anything either!"

She frowns. "Well, I have one idea... you could not wait anymore. You could go find them."

Tokomon pipes up now. "They don't want you to find them but we can do it! It's not impossible, Takeru. And then they'll be really proud of you!" He glances at Hikari, who gives her own approving nod. "They'll think you're super cool, Takeru! Or, um..." Tokomon flushes nervously. "I... I would think you were  _more_  cool."

Hikari watches Takeru's eyes widen and smiles. "Take a minute to think about it Takeru-kun. If you want to hear a little secret..." She smiles sheepishly. "I don't like being all grown-up and responsible either."

"But... but you are," he says, tears gone, thinking hard.

She nods. "Yeah, I guess I am."

He waits a moment more, as if expecting any further ideas. Then Takeru meekly holds out his hand. "Um... can I have my Crest and Digivice back?" He flushes and looks down at his shoes. "I... I shouldn't have thrown them away..." Tailmon opens her mouth to say something, but then Takeru turns to Tokomon. "I shouldn't have tried to throw  _you_  away either, Tokomon." His head hangs. "I'm sorry..."

Tokomon is either very kind or very lonely, because he forgives Takeru immediately, just in time for PicoDevimon to return. The Digimon does not take the news well, but Patamon doesn't take him well either.

This is enough to ensure they get moving and when Takeru asks her if she is okay, Hikari is able to say. "When we're together, I think I can say yes."

He understands.


	28. 3-5

3.5

By the time they reach Yamato and Jyou, tempers are running high and not even Takeru's cheerfulness can pull his brother from his own fit of a sulk. So Hikari asks Jyou to let Takeru help with his work (because she knows that Takeru has become a lot more perceptive in the three days they worked to find these two) and takes Yamato aside.

He is resistant and for goodness' sake, a boy, and so the first thing she does is punch him twice, once for all the ones he gave her when she was driving herself crazy, and one because he is an idiot.

He doesn't return the favor, but does proceed to yell at her like she's the reason everything in his life is horrible right now. Hikari would believe it all if it weren't for the fact that Takeru had probably expected a similar spiel for himself and that she had better things to worry about. So, she does the male thing and gives him a  _third_  punch for good measure, this one in his chest so he shuts up for a moment.

"Do I have to keep hitting you?" she asks, feeling that calm she had felt against PicoDevimon. "Or will you listen?" He glowers and doesn't reply and she shrugs. "I don't  _like_ hitting you, but I'll do it if it will get you to listen to someone other than your own head. Takeru-kun thought you hated him, you know." She shrugs again. "He still might. Do you?"

"Of course not!"

Hikari nods. "And he's supposed to know that when all you do is shout and stomp around?" Tailmon looks up from her careful conversation with Gabumon, which is probably going better than hers is right now. "I scolded him for being a baby earlier, but maybe I should be saying that to you."

"What do you know? You never did anything, just made decisions and didn't even talk with us!" He clenches his own fists but doesn't move them, shaking like he has a chill.

"Did you ever ask?"

Tailmon turns now to them, ears twitching. "Hikari."

Hikari nods and steps away from Yamato towards the restaurant that Jyou is working in. "Trust is a two-way street. Should I have told you what was wrong? Sure. I know that now. But that was then, and now I need you to try. If you don't, then nothing I do will work out for you. No one will do anything you would like. Aren't you our friend, Yamato-kun?" She doesn't wait for the answer to these questions, but does wait for Tailmon's return to her arms. "I messed up, Yamato-kun. I accept it. People mess up. It's not the end of the world every single time. Whatever is going on with you, talk about it after we help Jyou-senpai and the others."

"Just like you'll talk about you?"

She smiles. "Yes, actually. I will. As much as I can."

Someone screams and then she moves, reaching the others to find Patamon frantically hopping away from yellow vines. Tailmon jumps in and bats them off, and Jyou comes rushing in with a wooden rod and slams it on the Digimon's (apparently Vegimon's) head, only to be caught up in vines all on his own.

Then, while she's rushing into assist the poor guy, a shadow slams into her and it  _hurts_ , darn it all. Hurts less than it could, but seriously. Above her looms a giant egg (and again, she swears the voices in her head are taking the mickey with this) on legs and it lowers its beady eyes to look at her. "I was paid a mighty sum, you know," it hisses to her. "To keep him here, to keep work going. Do you understand how important that is?"

"I don't  _care,_ " she says, and she doesn't. She loves the worlds and their people, but that doesn't mean she is always allowed to be merciful to them. "Let them go."

"Or what?" he asks with a smile. "I've heard of you, the Child of the Light."

Hikari doesn't freeze or falter, merely smiles at the new moniker. "Good things?" Because she has to keep calm and focused or if Tailmon evolves again, Bastemon might lose it further.

"You attacked these children yourself, didn't you?" If an egg could purr, this one would be a cat. "They were in your way, after all. The Gazimon spread rumors after you disappeared, rumors of how you were insane and your friends were weak. Why not leave them here?"

Hikari shrugs. "Because I trust them to learn. Because they trust me to do better."

"Liar!" The black shadow knocks her into the trunk of a tree and that really needs to stop. "That blond guy seems to do the opposite, does he not?"

She coughs, shaking splinters of wood from her hair and taking a deep breath with an injured chest. "Yamato-kun... will figure himself out."

The egg closes its shell. "Perhaps. You won't live to see it." It lunges towards her before big blue and white paws knock it to the side, Garurumon snarling loud enough to overpower a buzzsaw. Beside him, Yamato is running at Vegiemon and she coughs, relieved.

_Near-death incidents. Not fun._

"Leave them alone!"

Takeru has never looked happier, she realizes, and thanks the whispering angels that even for a second, the guy has pulled himself together.

"Or what?" sneers the thing that looks like a squash. "You'll pout at me?"

Yamato makes only a "tch" and around his neck, his Crest glows a brilliant blue. "Guess that's a 'no'."

Garurumon shrinks, becoming a little more human in the blue light that wraps around him. In the chaos, Tailmon stabs a claw at Vegiemon's eyes and leaps away to her partner's side.

Hikari doesn't see the end, but she can guess they won because she is still breathing and there aren't vines going after  _her_. (Ew.) She focuses on breathing and when she gets a bit more air in her lungs, promptly spends it by commenting.

"Yamato-kun, if I have to punch you again after this, you will regret it, I swear."

He laughs, actually laughs. Progress.

Also, Jyou isn't dead via strangling.

All in all, a good day.


	29. 3-6

3.6

That evening, she says what she can say, and damn that the others aren't there but when a Yagami makes a promise then gosh darn it to heck that promise is kept.

Takeru seems to want to sit in Yamato's lap but for some reason sits in hers (and she thinks he is still nervous around Yamato, which is a problem for another fireside chat) and lets Tailmon pace around the seven of them, ears up and nose twitching.

She takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes, trying to remember the important details. Hikari doesn't want to start with, "You won't believe what I'm about to tell you," because she isn't sure about that.

Instead, she begins with, "Four years ago, I met a Digimon with my little brother."

There are no gasps, but certainly a few wide eyed stares, and this encourages her. "He was with us for only a day... and he saved us when another Digimon attacked us. Taichi liked him, and I know he was sad to see him go." She knows that to an outsider, this isn't important at first glance, but knowing this is as she keeps speaking. "Over time, he forgot about that Digimon, who we always thought was called Koromon. I... I didn't forget. I didn't forget the Digimon... and as time passed, I began to see them everywhere. No matter who I told, even Taichi, they didn't believe."

She pauses, and her fists clench. "My parents... they fought about it a lot, about if I was crazy or not. They didn't get it, but..." Her hands loosen, and she smiles over the fire at the two boys. "I don't really blame them. Because after my accident, I think I'm crazy too."

"Accident?" Takeru is speaking, his voice not outraged but solemn. He has a look on his face that makes her think  _accident equals divorce_  and gives Yamato a curious nod.

Then she continues. "I had caught a bad case of the flu one day. Taichi got scared and thought I should go to the hospital, but he had soccer practice that day, and I wanted him to go. So..." She pauses for a moment, trying to remember. "Yeah... that's right. I wanted to walk him there, show how strong our family was... but he wanted me to go the hospital. So I tried to compromise. And... well, we did make it to the hospital, at least." Hikari shrugs. "Just... I collapsed in the street and got hit by a truck on the way there."

This time, Jyou makes a choking noise of dismay and she wonders if she was too candid about the whole thing. Considering Takeru' face, she might have been.

Hikari continues before either boy can interrupt. "I should have died... pretty sure I must have for a few minutes at least, and apparently," she looks at her partner. "Tailmon was the same, right?"

"Yeah!" Gomamon looks a little pleased with himself for remembering. "All sick and freaking out and stuff."

Tailmon lashes her ringed tail with mild offense. "I did not 'freak out'!"

Gomamon grins. "Yeah, you did, yeah you did! Remember? Koro disappeared around then while you were screeching and stuff!" He droops, but it's a small motion, and Hikari has never known Gomamon to lose heart for very long. "Except Koro didn't come back."

Tailmon nods and Hikari frowns. "Koro? Like Koromon?"

Patamon pats her leg with his small black paws. "Yup! He was fun, always telling us how we would meet you guys someday and have super epic adventures! Idiot!" The insult is affectionate, but Tailmon nodding her head makes Hikari wonder just  _how_ affectionate.

"He  _was_  dumb though," Gomamon adds, seeing Jyou shaking his head.

Gabumon agrees, a rarity, because Gabumon rarely pipes up about anything. "He wanted to go after whoever hurt Nyaromon. We didn't. He went." The Digimon droops, and Yamato awkwardly pats a covered arm. "He didn't come back."

Takeru flinches and Hikari motions for Tailmon with a hand. The cat complies, purring at her scratches. "Not a coincidence."

"No kidding," Yamato mutters. "None of that can be a coincidence."

Jyou is silent. He pushes at his glasses and Hikari takes that as a sign to let him be. "I'll take first watch. Do you want to go second Takeru-kun?"

"I'll stay up now," Takeru decides before his brother can interrupt. "Then I'll sleep. I'm not tired yet."

She gives the older brother a glance, and Yamato gives a rough, if accepting nod, and rolls himself to rest on the ground.

Hikari sits back and thinks. Revealing that doesn't make her feel any lighter or any less full of worry. She is just more tired.

Not until everyone is okay.

"Hikari-san?"

"Hm?"

Takeru lets out a quiet sigh. "I'm happy you told us"

Hikari smiles. "Me too."


	30. 3-7

3.7

Halfway through the night and at the start of Jyou's watch, she goes to get some water.

She goes and sees a small yellow dinosaur splashing its face. In a daze of sleep, she does not instantly know him. The voices whisper and sing and wake her. After a few minutes of gathering herself, Hikari smiles. "Are you looking for Taichi, Koromon?"

The dinosaur jumps and turns to look at her, wide green eyes and scarred mouth dropped open. "Who are you?" he snaps. His raspy voice is surprisingly quiet in the forest. She smiles on, unconcerned.

"You're smaller this time, Koromon," she notes, grinning wider. "Good. You won't surprise Taichi when you suddenly take up the bed."

" _Agumon,_ " he says, glowering and lowering the clawed hands he had raised only seconds before. She smiles and sits down. "Who are you? Are you one of those Chosen or whatever?"

"Or whatever," Hikari agrees. "How did you know?"

Agumon shrugs and goes back to splashing his scarred face. She notices that the scales are a duller shade of yellow than the other Agumon and wants to reach out towards him. She doesn't, but waits for his answer. "Humans aren't a dime a dozen out here, so... just a guess, you know." He cups water and drinks, before adding. "My master won't want to see you alive. I should kill you now." He says this as candidly as she mentioned being hit by a truck.

"You aren't going to, are you?" She doesn't feel afraid, which is nice. She's only a little curious that he would admit it.

He shakes his head. "Nah. He's a bastard. It's not like you're botherin' nobody, except him."

"Did he do that to you?" She gestures to his chipped claws and broken scales.

Agumon nods, looking unconcerned. "Yeah. Deserved it though, most of the time."

"How?" She's curious. She knows that she didn't deserve to be sick and messed up, but she is. What could make someone deserve to be scarred like that?

Agumon shrugs. "I don't like doing what he wants. Apparently I look at him funny."

"Really?" Now, she's really interested in him.

He snorts. "Yeah. I look like a dinosaur instead of a minion. Sorry, my snout's all big and I like breathing fire!" The dinosaur shrugs, puffing out a bit of smoke to demonstrate. "Or it's my eyes. I dunno. Guy's a fickle jerk."

"Why do you stay then?"

Agumon frowns, milling it over. "Pride, really. Don't got a place to go back to no more. My friends have probably up and left and gone on adventures. I don' wanna go back a loser."

Hikari nods a little. She understands pride. "What about Taichi?"

"Who?" he grumbles, stabbing into a nearby fish after burning it.

"Taichi. You know who I'm talking about, don't you Agumon?"

The dragon sits and chews on the dead fish. "Rings some rusty bell in my head, I guess. Why? What makes you think I know?"

"Coincidence," she says, smiling.

"Coincidence is you meeting me, Chosen kiddo," he says with a chuckle. "Not you thinkin' some random kid is supposed to be important to me."

Hikari giggles and drinks a handful of water. "I'm just guessing, Agumon."

He flushes. "Well, don'. I already get in enough trouble with the master without that bein' possible." He is quiet for a few moments before adding. "I...Is it nice, though?"

Hikari smiles and walks over to pat his snout. "Yep. It's noisy too." She turns back to the trees. "Stay safe, Koromon."

" _Agumon_ ," he corrects, but she's managed to make him smile as she departs. "You two, weird human."

"Hikari."

"Hikari." He frowns. "Okay,  _both_  those names are ringin' bells."

Hikari grins. "Good night."

She doesn't know why the voices say, yes, it's him, but she doesn't question it. The two of them had once met an Agumon. It only made sense.


	31. 3-8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudo Berenjina! And the other guests, who I think I didn't mention.

3.8

The next morning, she keeps her secret meeting a secret, because it's safest for all of them, and the four of them separate to search for the signal from two digivices. Hikari gives Yamato a smile as he departs with Takeru and follows Jyou with a small hint of amusement. He is still quiet from last night's talk and she wonders how he can think so quietly.

"Jyou-senpai?"

He doesn't jump, which is good because he would have tripped on a rock if he had. "Y-Yes?"

"What are you thinking about?"

He pauses a moment, as if to shrug, then shakes his head. "I'm trying to puzzle the connection between Tailmon's attack, and your accident." He sighs. "Sometimes I wish I had bit more of Koushiro-kun's intelligence..."

"Jyou is plenty smart," Gomamon mutters. "Just plenty weak about it too."

Jyou flushes and Hikari smiles. "You are smart, senpai. So, what were you thinking?"

He pushes up his glasses and frowns, thinking again. "You and Tailmon are very close, aren't you?"

"Un," she replies with a nod, feeling Tailmon purring at the idea. "I'm not sure why, considering everyone has a partner."

"But, Hikari-kun, you are," Jyou hesitates. "You are at a different place than the rest of us. Sora-kun aside, you look and see and think of this place, this Digital World, um, rather differently."

Hikari shrugs. She only does so out of having no other choice. "I've known about it for a long time, though," she notes. "Wouldn't that make a difference?"

"That's kinda what I mean." Jyou carefully edges himself across the thin rock wall. "You remember these things and know these things that we don't. Maybe it's because you and Tailmon were hurt at the same time, but... do you think that you two could have resonated together... and maybe the worlds just left it alone?"

Hikari stares at him.

Jyou flushes. "I guess you might have figured that out already."

She shakes her head. "Vague ideas... nothing all that concrete... I am not sure it has left me alone either. Or," she shrugs. "I could be crazy. Nothing new there."

Jyou smiles. "You  _are_  a little crazy for coming back," he agrees, then freezes.

Gomamon pumps a paw into the air. "I WIN!" Tailmon snorts, grinning a little.

Hikari giggles. "Yeah."

"... I think we're all happy you did, though."

Hikari smiles, noting his embarrassment. Jyou is incredibly clumsy after all. "Thank you."

"Y-Yeah." He frowns, thinking of something she doesn't feel it right to pry in. "We should hurry! See who's waiting for us."

"Maybe they're waiting for you," she says, but picks up the pace anyway.


	32. Chapter 32

3.9

"Didn't know meeting a Feudal Lord was going to be crossed off my bucket list," Jyou mutters. Hikari giggles at him and he, instead of the mild nervous panic and dismay he had given off at day one, gives her an eye roll. She rather likes this less nervous version of Jyou. He's just fun, still a bit timid (she really wants to know why), but he's trying at this confident senpai thing from a new angle and she appreciates it. Aside from Sora, she doesn't know if there is anyone else to fill in the position of "strong role model for the team". She isn't one, that's for sure.

They enter to find a room full of chaos, with bipedal frogs running around.

After the giant, walking egg, Hikari ceases to find it disturbing. In fact, it's rather entertaining barring how exhausted they all look, and a feeling of dread rises in her heart at the phrase "the princess" being passed around. There's only one of them who's ever acted like a princess in any shape or form.

"Oh please no," Jyou mutters. "Mimi-chan wouldn't... would she?"

Mimi, from her observations, has always been a little spoiled, but seeing her walking around in a glitzy dress and barking orders through a bouquet is disturbing. She has never known the girl to be outright rude and insulting or all other manners of well... unlikeable. Hikari isn't quite sure what to do with her. She's not a boy, so a fight is out of the question. So are gentle words, because the girl is more stubborn than  _Taichi_ when a feeling's in her head.

So she sighs and sits down, even though Mimi had not given her permission. "Have you seen Sora-san?"

"No!" the brunette scoffs. "Why would I want to?"

Hikari shrugs. "I don't know," she says. "Why should anyone want to see you?"

"Hikari-san-" Jyou begins, but she shakes her head.

Mimi doesn't speak, but her face flushes with anger. Hikari raises an eyebrow.

"I'm not a nice person, you know," she says. "I'm not nice or good or any of those things, like you sometimes are. But even I... even I look at you right now Mimi-san... and I don't know who I'm looking at. Is this really what you want? To be pampered and waited on instead of seeing your family again? Is that really what will make you happy? Because if it is... then I'll go. Jyou-san and I will leave and go on and go home. I'd like you to come with us... but if you don't want to, I'll accept that." She stands again and leaves the room. "See you tomorrow, Mimi-san."

Jyou follows her, looking a little nervous. "Are you sure that was the right thing to do?"

Hikari shakes her head. "I don't know what the right thing to do is anymore. I just know she has to make her decision herself. She's not Yamato-kun, who depends on the feelings of other people as the truth. She's a good girl, I think, so I know she'll do the right thing when the time comes."`

"Do ya know or do ya hope?" Gomamon challenges, giving Palmon a roll of the eyes as she passes.

"I'd like to say I know," Hikari replies, kneeling down to pet at Palmon's flower. "But at this point, I'm going in as blind as I ever have. As long as I protect all of you, though, I'll take my chances."

"Why do you want to?" Palmon's question, gently asked, somehow makes Tailmon bristle. Or maybe it's the periwinkle dress. She can understand that. Wrong fashion statement all around.

"Why do you want to protect Mimi?" Hikari says, and Palmon blinks. She nods.

It's as simple as that.

So they camp outside, and wait. It's a little cold, but it's happy somehow, and Hikari only glances at her beeping Digivice a moment and shakes her head.

Whatever Sora-san is thinking, she doesn't understand it. Because only Sora-san would go sneaking around. Koushiro-kun was too quiet and patient to get involved.

The next morning, the castle begins to rumble as a faint song wafts through the air. They move to hurry back, but the roof breaks and Mimi is carried out by a fairy, dress-free and wearing an outfit ready for an adventure. For a few moments, panic registers on her face. But then she sees the others and waves frantically, smiling with triumph. Hikari nods at Jyou, who gestures for a place to land. The plant-girl drops Mimi near them and grins.

"Aren't I cool, guys?"

"Lilimon looks good, doesn't she?" Mimi brags, but her expression is nothing smug. Hikari grins back.

"She's your partner, Mimi-san. Of course she's good. Now... what did you do?"

"Um..." Mimi hedges, fussing with her pink hat. "It's... complicated?"

Jyou groans and Gomamon evolves quickly. "Why do Chosen Children things have to be complicated?"

Both girls giggle and Hikari places a hand to her empty Tag. "I think Koushiro-kun would know better than us. Take the lead, Mimi-chan?"

The change in honorific seems to brighten her more than anything else and Mimi nods, bouncing where she stands. "Go for it, Lilimon!"

"Okay!"

She does just that, cannon and all, as a large red frog rises from the shattered building. A few well-placed cannon blasts later and the building has crushed him down.

Mimi whoops and cheers and Hikari lets her hug her tightly, smiling.

"It's okay, Mimi-chan. You did great, really great..."


	33. 3-10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas~

3-10

Six of them are together, two nights later, and the Digimon are chatting happily with one another. Everything almost feels complete, almost right, but their missing one is too close for Hikari's heart to slow down, and the others are looking worried.

Takeru is pulling his weight incredibly well, peering around and listening to as much as he can, having Patamon be a fuzzy radar. Yamato looks lost, and Hikari decides to let this one go. It's something that has to just be accepted. The little one can't always be little.

She still doesn't make the boy take first watch alone, but that's the only compromise she can allow. If Taichi was here, he would stay up until the crack of dawn all by himself because he  _could_ , and that's not a compliment.

Takeru still, despite whatever conversations must have occurred during their time apart, stays close to her and Hikari finds it almost infuriating. But she knows the little boy can't help himself, because while she's nothing as strong as a big brother, at least she is honest with him. It's Yamato who needs another slap to the head. She hopes to not have to carry out her warning, at least.

"Do you think we'll find Sora-san?" Takeru asks as they walk.

"If she doesn't want me to sic Tailmon on her, she'll come out herself," Hikari says with a giggle and Taillmon grins.

"I do love chasing birds."

Takeru knows she's joking but he doesn't smile. "Why doesn't she want to be here?" Hikari opens her mouth but he adds on. "I didn't want to be with everyone either because it was easier... but now that we're together, I don't really like being separated now."

Hikari hears her Digivice beep and smiles sadly, mussing his hair. "Let's go tell her that together, okay?"

He smiles when his Digivice beeps with it, and nods.

She gestures for the others to follow. If anyone is needing a dressing down, it's Sora.

Hikari wishes that she isn't the person to be giving it to her.


	34. 3-11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More kudos! Thank you!

3-11

"I don't know what love is."

Self-pity doesn't work. It never works and Hikari pities Sora for using it as an excuse now.

However, she is also angry, angry at her lack of notice. To protect means to understand and no matter how much she observed them before, Hikari realizes she knows only enough about her friends to know how to keep them safe and alive, and not how to keep them happy. Damn.

It sorrows her and angers her and then she looks at Tailmon's lashing tail and claws raised towards Sora like she is a threat and wonders.

"Tailmon?" she says softly. The cat relaxes a hair, returning to all-fours by her feet. Sora just stares at them, tears threatening to fall and Hikari hesitates. Sora can't take a punch; Hikari doesn't care how many soccer balls she has kicked around for the school team, she has never been able to take a punch without wincing hard. Also, treating this like she had gone after Mimi was asking for a cat fight, earring pulling included.

So Hikari decides to do what she does best; accept, deny, and move on. "It doesn't mean you have to be alone, Sora-san."

"If you don't know what love is," Koushiro says in a hushed whisper, and Hikari gently ushers him forward. "You can... you know, learn about it, and figure it out."

"We'll help." Hikari is never so proud of Yamato's impulsive comments than now.

"Or we'll try anyway," Jyou mutters, grinning and pushing up his glasses.

"It can't be that hard," Mimi decides, crossing her arms. "No harder than listening to Etemon's bad singing!"

Takeru steps towards Sora, who flinches from her place on the other side of the clearing. "Please, Sora-san? You're not alone now, so..."

"No, Takeru-kun," Hikari counters gently. "She's never been alone."

For some reason, Sora cries and runs into a group hug that makes Hikari smile.

Then her body is wracked with agony, her blood screaming in unison with Tailmon's yowling of pain and her eyes are drawn towards the sky.

 _The demon,_ the voices sing, angels all.  _The demon is hungry._

She manages to convince the others that she's not dying, but yes, things are bad. Takeru is hovering by Yamato, looking scared and helpless and maybe a little mad.

Tailmon grits her teeth and whimpers in her arms. Hikari finds she can't even move her legs to roll over and remains on her side, hissing pain through her lips and trying desperately not to swear.

Coming. The demon is close.

_Hungry and hunting, greedy. Slay it! You've done so much, just a few steps further!_

They act like it's easy. She wheezes for air, and then forces herself to rise, looking towards the darkening sky. Sora's hand is at her wrist and though it's getting hard to hear whatever she is saying, Hikari raises her head to fix a blurry gaze on Sora's blue hat.

"You're... wrong," she says. "Just because you don't know what love is... doesn't mean you don't know how."

The world spirals not to black but to red, and Hikari gives up on thought as a fiery pain suddenly lashes into her torso like a whip.


	35. 3-12

3-12

She wakes to wind in her hair and the knowledge that she is moving. Takeru's face is close to hers and his eyes widen. "You're awake?"

"Y-Yeah... Tailmon?"

"I'm here." Her partner's voice is weak, brimming with rage underneath the pain. "A-Are you all right?" Hikari listens more closely and recognizes the change in pitch as Plotmon crawls to nestle at her neck. "It was him, Hikari. It was. His bats were screaming." She giggles, and it's the hysterical laugh that is unintentionally frightening. "I heard them. It was them. It was. It was!"

"Plotmon," she murmurs, wishing she had the strength to even move. A mere twitch of her fingers sends fire through her body and without realizing it, she rolls to the side, against the back of a large hand. She doesn't notice this part, as the fire is still running through her body and eventually she manages to roll onto her back, the cool air suddenly burning her skin. "The demon..." she croaks, trying to look at the others. "It's him... what was it?"

"He was creepy!" Mimi announces, though the statement lacks all of her perky cheer. She looks very solemn, almost disgusted. "He had blue skin and kept staring at you and laughing!"

"He threw a red whip at you," Koushiro said, typing quietly and trying to decode... something. It seems like that's what he's doing. Koushiro types faster when he's trying to figure things out. "We're lucky it didn't kill you." He frowns. "I guess my theory was incorrect."

"It should have killed me," she coughs out, sitting up with Yamato's faint assistance. Hikari coughs. "Feels like he tried." Not that she remembers getting hit in the first place, but it is probably a relief.

"If Sora hadn't given me strength, he would have killed us all." Above her ears rasps the voice of a great bird. There is a bit of Piyomon in that voice, the unquenchable faith in a partner that made even Patamon seem disloyal. So Hikari relaxes, and lets her gaze wander. Sora is sitting near her, and there are tears in her eyes again. "Sora-san?"

"I was wrong," she says in a voice so low it's almost nothing. "I was wrong. About mother, about me. I was wrong..."

Hikari smiles. "It's good to be wrong sometimes. Especially since you managed to save everyone by being wrong."

Plotmon forces herself up to her paws and pads over to plop herself in Sora's lap. "You're dripping," she notes.

Hikari snorts. Her partner doesn't understand crying. Probably never will.

Sora giggles a bit. "I'm all right."

Maybe she is, Hikari thinks. At least for the moment.

Yamato looks back at them. "What now?"

Hikari gives him a cold, if not dangerous smile. "We get some answers."

_And kill that bastard._


	36. 4-1

4-1

Gennai contacts them, at long last. She hasn't heard from him since he mentioned the Crests, and not even Koushiro has been able to track him.

That annoys her, but she says none of this. She still has trouble staying upright some days, even though Tailmon is well. Better not push it.

"You have a new comrade," the old man says. "And that digimon -Vamdemon- knows where they are. If the eight of you aren't together, well... it's a rather painful fate."

Hikari tenses, and it's a testament to how close they are that Tailmon doesn't instantly launch herself forward at the hologram, but wraps her tail around Hikari's wrist instead. It is only a minor comfort.

Hikari shuts her eyes and breathes. "Where do we go?"

Gennai isn't looking at her, but it feels like he is. "Home."

The ripple of emotion from the others is painful. It's wistful, afraid, even a little angry. Vamdemon is going to Earth. He's going to find their comrade and kill them.

No, Hikari corrects to herself. He's going to go after  _Taichi_ , and try to kill him.

Her body screams as she whispers, voice venomous and eyes blue. "I'll kill him first."

Tailmon lashes her tail in agreement and Sora suddenly squeezes Hikari's shoulder. She hasn't told them the part about Taichi, but Sora has known that little boy since he joined the beginner's soccer team. She's guessed.

Hikari feels the others watching her, feels Takeru lean himself into her lap. She doesn't stop him, not even when he says. "Do you know who it is, Hikari-chan?"

She nods, and Takeru nods right back, looking at Patamon then. Patamon grins, raising a tiny black fist. Koushiro is watching her for a moment, then returns to typing, furiously now, as though lightning struck his brain.

Gennai tells them where to go, towards the darkened castle, which is a cliche if she has ever heard one. The voices whisper as they walk towards it, angry as they usually aren't. Though it's suddenly easier to move, her head throbs as they get closer. She wonders, she fears.

Then she looks at her empty Crest and smiles, a little bit of triumph in her eyes.

"You got it wrong, demon," Hikari hisses to the air. Tailmon giggles.

_You've got the wrong Crest._

Vamdemon has  _hers_.

As long as he does, her brother is safe. Until someone puts the pieces together.

Hikari has hope the bastard will be  _disintegrated_ by then but she's not holding her breath.

It really doesn't strike her how unlike her these thoughts are until much later.


	37. 4-2

4-2

Hikari, in a fit of semi-sanity, orders Tailmon to sneak through the castle. She's the quietest one when not hysterical, and isn't bound by the limitations of not being able to fly. Jumping is incredibly useful.

Sora sits next to her while they wait, and watches Yamato pace and Jyou get supplies in an attempt to be level-headed. "Is it Taichi," she asks Hikari? Hikari nods, fists clenching. "You really want to go storm right in there now, don't you?"

"He's going to be okay," Hikari says, looking at her empty Tag. "He's Taichi. If he's not okay," her eyes flicker. "I'll raise hell." She will, there's no doubt that she will raise the legions of hell and turn Bastemon as evil as she can if it means protecting her brother and her family and friends.

Sora grins. "You know, you act calm a lot, Hikari-chan, but when it comes to what you care about, you're as hot-headed as the rest of us."

"We all have our vices," Hikari allows a smile and shakes her head. "I need to keep him safe, all of you safe. I... I have to."

"Because of what Gennai said?"

Hikari places her head on her knees, hating Sora for thinking it through."I... I don't want people to cry anymore. And surely, if you are all hurt or sad, then you really aren't safe, are you?"

"But what about you?"

Oh that question. Don't people know not to ask that?

She shrugs. "I make it up as I go. I end up okay... sometimes. Not sure about now." The pain, barring a heavy twinge in her arms, is gone.

Sora rolls her eyes, and Hikari bites her tongue on the comment that Sora looks like her mother. Too soon. "You can't keep us happy if you're messed up too."

"Don't underestimate a Yagami," is the snide answer.

Sora sticks out her tongue.

Hikari returns it and laughs a little. She is tired, they are all tired, and when Yamato and Takeru take the first watch together, she doesn't protest when no one wakes her up for hers.

She is worried for Tailmon, but her partner is cunning. She will be safe.

She has to be.


	38. 4-3

4-3

"Hikari!"

Her partner's voice is a hiss at her ear, but it rouses her from her sleep. Hikari winces, cracking her neck. She needs to stop sleeping sitting up. Her eyes open blearily. Everyone is asleep, even Sora, who is on watch. She supposes she can understand why. Rough times the past few weeks, after all. She looks at Tailmon, who is perched on a familiar yellow head.

Hikari smiles. "Going rogue, are you Agumon?" She is a little surprised, but also half-asleep, so it doesn't click.

The dinosaur snorts. "Kinda sorta. I guess. What are you doin' here? Kitty here says you want to use the Gate or somethin'."

"We need to go home," she says simply. "There's someone I have to protect."

"From my master," he surmises, amused. "Interestin'."

Hikari's eyes flick towards the others. Takeru is stirring, and the Digimon are all starting to shift awake. "Do you think you can stop us?"

Agumon gives the small group a curious glance. "Maybe? If I really tried, I could think o' somethin'." He scratches his head, nearly scratching Tailmon in the process. "Don' really want to, though. M' master needs a few whacks to the head, so..." He grins, large fangs gleaming in the ashes of the fire. "I'd like to be allowed to do one, if ya'd let me."

"I'll give you one better," she promises, and goes to wake the others, starting with Koushiro. If anyone can take this advantage and make it a solid plan, it's him. The voices are whispering, cheering on the inside of her skull.

The one who's against it is not Yamato, but Jyou. She can understand; they don't know this Digimon from any other. But...

Hikari takes a deep breath. "If my hunch is right," she begins. "Then Taichi is the Eighth Child. And... we first met a Koromon four years ago. I... For me, it would only make sense that Agumon would be for my brother."

The Digimon are bleary-eyed and half-asleep but then Tentomon sits up. "Agumon?" The other Digimon shift up to look at him and Tailmon peeks open one eye from her spot on the dinosaur's head.

"Uh..." the Agumon says, scratching at a scar. "Yeah. Something important about that?"

Gabumon moves to his hind legs. "Well...Koro always wanted to be an Agumon."

No one says anything for quite a while.


	39. 4-4

4-4

After that, the atmosphere relaxes and for some reason, no one questions Agumon anymore. Hikari wonders at why before deciding that the Digimon are probably more persuasive than she can ever be in regards to making friends or killing enemies, so she accepts it and follows Agumon to a small hole in the castle wall.

"Wonderful thing about keepin' out of a bastard's way is you find every place he don' want you to be and then some," he says to her. She nods, listening because she feels he needs someone to listen to him more than ever, as though he lost the person who was supposed to do that. She doesn't want to ask if he had. Already, she feels a little nauseous, nothing like the pain from before, but the sick feeling is bad enough. Agumon is sniffing at the path ahead, looking wary.

"PicoDevimon's probably 'round here somewhere," he mutters. "Stupid baseball."

"Agumon," Takeru begins, looking shyly at each injured scale as the other Digimon contain titters at the comment. "Why are you working for Vamdemon? You don't seem to like him."

Agumon laughs. "I  _hate_  him!" The sound echoes on the walls and he falls silent and still a moment. "But... I lost a bet, y' see... I bet him I could escape his hell in three days... I did... but I had nowhere to go... and he found me. Over an' over. Stupid, righ'?" He shook his head. "Now I'm still here, just long enough to see him croak like the frog he is. Then... I'll go home maybe. Wherever home was."

He doesn't seem sad, but tears are rising in Takeru's eyes anyway. Agumon blinks. "Whassa matter with you? It's not a big deal! I'm a tough guy, ya know!" He grins. "Tough as a steel wall, that's me! The strongest of my pals! And they all knew it!"

Takeru manages a giggle, but it's weak and Hikari can guess that, like the others, he wants to pity Agumon and what must have been a painful life, whether he is the Eighth Digimon or not, but she feels for Agumon more. Agumon doesn't want pity. He wants to end it all with his own hands.

She knows that feeling.

Agumon stops suddenly and Tailmon opens her eyes and hisses. "I think we're smellin' the same thing kitty."

The other Digimon sniff themselves and Palmon lets out a whine. "Something smells like it's burning!"

"But can you seriously burn a castle?" Gomamon mutters.

Agumon grins. "You can burn anything if you try hard enough. Speakin' of which, all o' ya'll mind steppin' back a bit? It's gonna get cramped in here for a sec'!"

The others hesitate and Hikari steps back first, smiling. "Do it Agumon!"She doesn't know what he's going to do, but the voices say trust and so she will.

Tailmon races back to Hikari's shoulder and the others follow her lead. Agumon cracks his shoulders. "All righ'," he grunts. "Time to let loose." His body begins to glow bright and the light expands to shatter the tiny ceiling, leaving a larger orange dinosaur in its wake. The Digimon smirks. "Man, does that feel good!" he shouts. "But not quite as great as this!" He swings his tail, easily avoiding their heads, and crashing a great hole in the wall. "Come on! If we're punchin' out the bastard, we have to find him!"

Hikari laughs. The cheer is infectious. It's a bad laugh, she knows it is, but it's better than that horrible anger and it's definitely better than feeling sick.

So she runs forward and the others go after her.

They have every reason to be afraid, and they probably are.

But that doesn't mean they won't go.


	40. 4-5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for kudos!

4-5

Resistance is met with claws, fangs, and death.

She doesn't ask them to, in fact, Hikari wishes they didn't have to, but every evolved Digimon tears into their opponents without gusto or fury but a clinical ferocity that speaks volumes. Tailmon is a neat little blur through the crowds of monsters, aiming her claws or tail in just the right places. Her Holy Ring is stained red.

She is thankful that Takeru is more focused on running than watching because if not, Yamato would have to carry the little guy. She's  _still_ not sure if he's over Devimon. Jyou keeps Mimi's wrist firmly in hand because she  _is_ watching, and is  _not_ okay. She will need a nice cooldown hug when this is over.

Hikari thinks she might need one too.

But for now...

"Yamato-kun!"

He nods and Garurumon picks him and Takeru up, pulling as many of the others aboard as they can. They might not make it together, but at least one of them has to get through to Taichi's side. Someone has to protect him, and it might not be her.

At least Yamato understands sibling things, even if he doesn't know how to do it himself. She can trust him with this. She has no choice.

"Hikari-chan!" Sora calls and Hikari realizes she is the only one who a Digimon isn't carrying. She smiles and places a hand at Greymon's tail.

"Go on ahead!" she calls, because nausea is sudden and gripping and she has a guess at what's about to happen, or at the very least, who is behind her. "I'll definitely catch up!" Togemon hesitates, Mimi and Sora on both fists, and Hikari raises her voice. " _Go!"_

Hikari turns to face Vamdemon's smile. He stands nearby and she shifts herself for a blow. "Looking for a fight?"

Tailmon laughs and raises her claws. Her body trembles with fear, with excitement, and darkness begins to wrap at her hind paws. Vamdemon's lips curl into a deeper smile. "I'm looking for the Eighth Child."

"Sorry," Hikari says as Greymon slowly turns his body. Her chest has begun to ache, red-hot, but she doesn't let herself kneel. "I can't let you get them."

"I'm well aware that you can't, but you will. But first," a red whip forms in his hand. "You will answer a few questions." Tailmon steps forward, but Vamdemon only sneers. "You act like you have the power to survive me."

Tailmon giggles, a shree of noise. "I did once, didn't I?"

"Indeed," the vampire said thoughtfully. "Indeed. Perhaps that was..." He looks at Hikari, who suddenly recognizes those blue eyes from her own stare, her murderous stare in a carnival mirror. "Because of you?"

He brings the whip down.


	41. 4-6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudo new person. Everyone, please let me know what you think.

4-6

The first instinct says to dodge, but her brain notes she is simply too slow and raises her arms to block or prepare for a great deal of pain. Neither happens, as Greymon swings his tail to cover her. The whip cuts an ugly mark down and Greymon hisses. Hikari is grateful she has kept composure under bad conditions because Greymon's hiss soon becomes a roar as the energy sinks deeper. Blood hits her shoe and again, she is breathing through her mouth because screaming is bad form.

"Oh, that was protective of you," the vampire muses. "Are you perhaps...  _concerned_  for her, my dear servant?" He sounds disturbingly calm, even by her standards of stoic.

"Dear, my  _ass_ ," Greymon snaps. "I'd rather not you kill some randomo chick because you can!"

"Oh, I'm not sure I  _can_ kill her," the demon says softly, and Hikari cringes. "I think she has a little something keeping her alive. A little...  _virus_?"

Hikari wishes she had Yamato's blunt inability to put things nicely right about now. "What... are you talking about?" It is getting harder to breathe, harder to stay upright.

Vamdemon ignores her, looking at Tailmon. "My bats remember your blood, and not being able to drink it all. That little grin on your face, did they teach you how to do that?"

_Oh no._

It clicks. It clicks in her mind and Hikari finds herself smiling, laughing. "You  _marked_ her," she says and the demon shrugs. "And me. You marked me."

"Unintentional," he says, but he's smirking like he meant to and Hikari feels her blood boiling. "I meant to mark the Eighth Digimon, since someone leaked their location to me... but it looks like I got you instead. So... why don't we work together... and puzzle this out?"

"Over my dead body," she snarls, and Tailmon laughs and laughs, the darkness around her body growing thicker. She should be afraid, because this is probably wrong, this is probably all wrong.

But for the second time, Hikari finds she does not care.

And maybe that's the mark of the demon in her blood, the reason she hasn't died at least six times on this adventure and the reason she got hit by that truck. Maybe it's the mark that has destroyed her Tailmon's sanity.

Or maybe she doesn't care because whether this is true or not, this guy remains a  _bastard_  who attacked her friends and scarred Agumon, and was going to try and take over her world and kill her family.

_Like hell._

She finds the anger wondrous, disquieting, but necessary. Tailmon begins to shift and change but this time it does not hurt as her empty Tag glows black and something within Vamdemon's robes glows pink and bright and Hikari feels her heart throb.

She grins and Bastemon lets out a happy, mewling cry as she rises up on all fours. "Get him away!" Hikari commands and Bastemon bursts into a dance aided by her sharp red claws.

It feels bad and good, but Hikari realizes now that sometimes things  _can_ be both.


	42. 4-7

4-7

Bastemon cuts into the cape, and Hikari can't help but feel the dramatics that accompany that cape are going to be the death of this guy and it's ironic. Maybe he sees himself as a heroic savior or something.

Hah. She doesn't even know if she's a savior anymore. Hikari doubts she ever was, with this virus in her partner and in herself. But being one really doesn't matter, because she has a job to do, and will get it done, no matter what it does to her.

Vamdemon is surprised, but not surprised enough to dodge and to strike with the whip again (does he have a problem?) or to send the bats screaming forwards. But Bastemon is laughing a shrieking croon and dances towards him, slicing through each bat with a laugh.

"Does someone like you have any blood to drain?" she catcalls and Vamdemon raises a hand to hold her still.

But Greymon, injured tail or not, is still in action and he lunges to rake his claw downward and pull the demon aside. Hikari moves forward, her eyes catching a glimpse of the pink glow. She crouches, ready to jump and grab whatever it is that's glowing in his clutches but Greymon easily yanks her off and pulls her onto his back.

"C'mon, crazy kids," he shouts. "We've got better things to do than dance around with him!"

Bastemon probably only follows because Greymon is taking Hikari with him. If not, something tells her that the Digimon would stay and scratch the other vampire apart until there was nothing left of him but blue skin and tattered fabric. Instead, she tears into anything that is in the way of their charge, laughing loudly. There is a shriek from down below and it's so high-pitched that Hikari thinks it's Mimi.

Turns out she's right. When Greymon lands on the ground in front of them, The girl is hiding behind the foot of Togemon. The others cringe at the sight of Bastemon but the vampire cat ignores them, charging towards what's left of the army. Vamdemon is somehow already there, in front of a large, black door.

"What's going on?" Hikari asks and Sora hurries to reply.

"They've been blocking us from an altar." She looks again at Birdramon, who is failing to flap her wings in this large room and simply gives up, devolving to protect Sora from closer to home. Hikari looks between them and lets out a shout because up ahead  _Vamdemon is rising from the floor._

She is a bit too slow to react but Bastemon lets out a happy purr and rushes Vamdemon's back, stabbing into it with her dancing claws as a spell begins. The large, looming doors open wide, inside glowing blue and the voices rise in a pitch of shrieks.

_There! There!_

Raw pain erupts like a heart attack when Vamdemon snarls, blood on his back, and Hikari hisses a breath. Inhaling tightly, she screams in a hoarse howl. "Bastemon! Get everyone through there!"

They all look at her, horrified for their own reasons, not including that she probably looks like a lunatic right now, and her voice drops to a desperate whisper. "Please,  _trust me_."

Hearing those words, Takeru bolts towards her, hugs her waist, and then runs full-tilt, towards the blue light. PicoDevimon darts to grab him by the hair but Patamon tackles him to the side and flies after him, blowing great puffs of air at any creature who tries to stop them.

Takeru's movement is enough of a cue for the others to run forward and as Vamdemon sends his troops rushing after them, he turns and lunges for Hikari herself. She pinwheels back, almost landing on her butt as the vampire reaches for her, eyes glittering with rage.

"Defiant," he whispers. "Aren't you?"

"I blame you," she snaps, kicking him in the shin. Comical, but it always works and Greymon pulls her up onto his head. Yamato is dawdling at the large, open door, looking at her with eyes that say hurry up.

Hikari shakes her head as more troops rush towards him and Garurumon sets another on fire. "Go!" The rest of her request goes unsaid but Yamato runs through the gate with Gabumon at his heels and he has to be the last because Bastemon is now at her side and dancing.

"What do we do now, crazy girl?" Greymon asks.

Hikari looks toward the open door, which has too many enemies in front of it for her to be confident, and at a disheveled, furious Vamdemon looming closer, and sighs. "We come back another day," she says, and it hurts to say it. "The others are there; they'll get started."

"But that door is still open," Bastemon whines and Hikari wonders why her partner is so insane. It's not the first time she's thought it but what did Vamdemon do to make her go insane instead of maybe bitter? What happened from that bite?

But she can't think about it and shakes her head, wincing in pain and noticing an open wound on her partner's side. "But we're all hurt and we can't get through all those guys  _and_ Vamdemon. So we need to run and recover."

"But Taichi," protests the cat.

Hikari smiles weakly. "They will protect him."

She is sure they will. She trusts them.


	43. 4-8

4-8

That night, when they've made it out by the skin of their teeth, Gennai appears.

"I see," he says quietly and Hikari notes his demeanor is different. The man was genial in the beginning, a friendly if kooky, old man, but this is not that man. He is serious, and his bulbous, closed eyes are on her too much. "You stayed behind."

Hikari nods. "The others went through. It was too risky for me to jump after them."

"I see." His voice is quiet as he repeats this. "Can you walk?"

"Do you need me to run?"

Plotmon perks an ear and Agumon frowns. They look tired, but they see Hikari's eyes and snap up, getting to their feet and nodding with some unified firmness.

They understand. Vamdemon has likely gone through the Gate. She needs-they need- another way through. It isn't like he left the keys.

Gennai vanishes and a light begins to shine in the blatant and discomforting. "Oh my," she muses to herself before following it. The voices are silent, and she is grateful, because she has no urge for a headache while being in this much pain.

" _Eurgh_ ," Plotmon grumbles when they reach a lake. "He wants us to swim?" Agumon snorts and a puff of smoke leaves his nose. It's too weak to be intimidating and it's likely the guy doesn't care. Hikari watches water wash away from a great staircase and Hikari winces, placing a hand to her hip.

"Be careful," she warns the Digimon. "It's bound to be slippery." They nod and Plotmon bounds forward, bloody paws and all, and Agumon takes the rear, watching Hikari limp forward.

"We'll be there soon," he says, voice hushed.

Hikari smiles weakly. "I'm all right."

Agumon snorts, and this time it's flame. "You not gonna be okay until you're strangling big, ugly batface so well his eyes pop out and that kid you're worried about is behind your back and safe."

Hikari grins. "Good."

The old man stands at the entrance, arms behind his back, expression furrowed into a frown. "It is good to finally meet a Chosen Child," he says softly. "Though I must admit, I thought you would have died by now." He glances at Agumon. "The same goes for you. It was my error that got you into the situation that you were in. My apologies to both of you."

Agumon stares. "Dude, I don't even know who you are."

Gennai sighs. "And that is the exact issue with both of you. Come in, please. You are all injured."

The three of them look at each other and follow, swallowed by the water.


	44. 4-9

4-9

Hikari sits, but Plotmon flops, giggling at the feel of the tatami mats. Agumon rolls his eyes and grins, sitting back as best as his tail will allow. She's tied it with bandages from Gennai's first aid but it still look painful. Plotmon looks like a mummy but she seems better. Better than being as frazzled as she had been before, better than being near Vamdemon.

But it won't be the end. They will have to fight again.

Gennai hands her a deck of cards when he returns from wherever he had been hiding. "You will need this."

Hikari nods and takes them, cracking her neck and nodding in thanks. "Who are you?"

"A servant of Homeostasis," he says softly. "Rather like yourself, I presume." Hikari tilts her head, puzzled. "The voices," he elaborates. "Have they spoken to you, caused you to see things no one else can?"

Hikari nods.

"Ah, that is them," he says, smiling solemnly, his one tooth visibly in that ancient expression. "They are the ones who chose you."

"I gathered," Hikari comments, stroking Plotmon's floppy ears. "But... what does that have to do with you?"

The old man sighs. "I was supposed to protect your- the Chosen Children's,rather- partners, keep them safe. But... I failed."

"But we hatched in Primary Village, where Digimon all hatch," Plotmon protests, wide-eyed and still looking rather boneless. "Weren't we supposed to?"

"Were Vamdemon's bats supposed to bite you?" the old man counters.

Plotmon frowns. "Um... I dunno." She shakes her head. "That's not the same anyway."

"Quite true, it is not," says the man. "But it should not have turned you so fluidly to Bastemon. His venom... it quite warped you when the bats bit in. It should have killed you, but it did not."

"Duh," says the pup, watching Hikari look through the cards with mild interest. "So?"

"So the virus likely could not," Gennai sighs, glancing at the only human in the room. "Because of you, Yagami Hikari. You were already ill, weren't you?" Hikari nods, looking now to Agumon, who is yawning. "Likely, that virus of Vamdemon's has a mind of its own. He does many things which aren't natural for a Perfect level of his kind. It likely dubbed you the weaker of the two and went to you and her. That weakened its potency, but since you are connected, strengthened its effect."

He pauses. "Again, this is mere theory. However, it is the most likely example I can think of. Have you been feeling ill?"

"Around him? Yes."

Agumon snorts. "I feel sick around the guy too but he's never bitten me..." He halts. "That I remember.. Ew."

"Ew," Hikari repeats, wrinkling her nose. Plotmon giggles.

Gennai chuckles, then frowns again. "You must go tomorrow. If you don't, the others, including the Eighth, will likely die, disjointed time connection or otherwise."

"They are strong,"Hikari counters, though she knows she must go, in fact if they weren't injured, they would go right now. "They know what to do. They don't need me."

"They wouldn't have come together without you, girly-cat," Agumon says. "Even I can see that. They wouldn't know what to do without you."

Hikari shakes her head and sighs. "I'm the one who threw them apart."

"But we fixed it Hikari," Plotmon says. "We fixed it and we can fix this too. We gotta! I like fighting, I like it..." Her eyes narrow. "But I don't like  _him_."

Gennai watches her face, watches her reaction, and adds. "It is late. You ought to rest."

"Hold on there, old dude," Agumon says, sitting up. "What were ya sayin' to me, earlier?"

Gennai smiles. "You have the answer already. Just let yourself understand it."

He leaves, and Agumon snorts fire. "Codger."

Hikari giggles.


	45. 4-10

4-10

They are up and out with the sun, hurrying from Gennai's as fast as possible. Agumon barely waits to leave the stairs before he is that big Greymon again, stomping through the trees and making a general nuisance of himself to the few soldiers left in the surrounding area. Hikari ignores it, though Tailmon is laughing. Hikari turns the cards over in her hands. "Child, Adult, Perfect..." she murmurs, looking at each card.

"I wonder if this will work," she mumbles to the air.

Tailmon rolls onto her back. "Why wouldn't it?"

"Because that geezer is insane?" Greymon says, and Hikari nods. That is her basic reason. Gennai seems a few cards short of a full deck, and trusting someone with that mentality is asking for trouble.

"We're not okay, either Hikari," her partner says. "And the others trust you."

The truth of that stings like tears, but Hikari only smiles her agreement, shuffling the small pack of cards again. "Desperation leads to many things."

"Hmph." Greymon rolls his red eyes. "Maybe, but don't put yourself down so low, kid. Even crazy people are people... except that vampire. He just needs to leave existence, now."

"Amen," Hikari agrees and hangs her head. Because Tailmon seems worse when he's around, because she feels disgusting and violent when he's around, and if that doesn't scare her, what really can?

At the sight of the enemies in front of her, Hikari cringes, because there is no way to evolve Tailmon again. In fact, she doesn't know how she has done it at all. But Tailmon doesn't care. She leaps into the fight anyway, punching and kicking, and trying to dance with awkward paws. Greymon doesn't even care, merely slashes his claws around and apparently that does more than enough to either frighten or send the enemies into the nearby wall. Hikari is still running through the cards when they reach the great black doors and stands upon the cracked floor alone. She lays them out and sighs.

"Koushiro-kun would be helpful right now," she muses. "But I'm alone for a bit, I guess."

She lays the cards out in a line, then a square. The levels are something she knows, but arranging them by that alone isn't the only answer. Tailmon plops down beside her as the air soon smells of smoke. "Hikari, you need to hurry!"

Tailmon sounds not so much urgent as she does wary, and that makes her stomach clench and fingers fumble for just a moment. Then she carefully arranges them, evolution level wise then looks at Etemon.

"Tailmon, is Bastemon a virus?"

Tailmon nods. "Like Etemon and his dogs!" Her eyes flash and she suddenly leaps forward, punching a spider in the face. Hikari shudders. She never did like those things. Shaking her head, Hikari moves the cards around until she is faced with an awkward grid. Looking at the pedestal ahead, she hesitates.

"Didja get it?" Greymon snaps, punching another large spider.

"I... maybe." There are two cards left and she doesn't know which is right.

"Then do it!"

Hikari looks at him. "But what if I'm wrong?"

Tailmon shrugs. "We won't know until we get there. So do it!"

She isn't sure if these Digimon are courageous or foolish, but she does as they say and the pedestal begins to glow, opening the door wide. Greymon shrinks down and shakes his head, dodging a splat of web.

"Thank you," he grumbles. "That was getting annoying."

Tailmon rolls her eyes. "Speak for yourself. I want bug spray. "

"But they ain't bugs..."

Hikari tries not to giggle while she's running, but she can't help it. Her empty Tag glows, this time pink, and it pulls her feet forward and then down, down through the gaping hole that the open doors made. Pain runs up her spine and she suddenly coughs, spitting red.

She hears Tailmon and Agumon both cry out her name for a moment, and then the world goes completely black.

In the darkness, the Agumon card burns, falling from her hands.


	46. 4-11

4-11

" _You're almost here. Don't give up!"_

This voice...

" _Hurry! Please hurry!"_

No, these voices...

" _You're so close!"_

Who are they? They sound like they know... but who are they?

" _Please keep fighting. You are the only one who can."_

Fighting...? Fighting what? Fighting who? Why should she be fighting?

" _I thought you were stronger than this! Get over here! You're making everyone cry, you idiot!"_

Crying? Why would anyone be crying? Why would she make someone cry? How could she? Her body throbs and Hikari opens her eyes to see water and a dim light. Around her, the water is gray, and she can breathe. She floats below the surface, staring at the light above her. The voices... are they coming from there? Is that where she is supposed to go? She moves to push her arms up and swim, but a hand clutches at her ankle.

No, her own hand clutches at her ankle.

It is her, isn't it? But the eyes are too blue and her hair is black. The eyes are wider than they used to be and the face is too blank, too young.

"Are you sure you want to go?" her small self asks. "Do you really want to go to that place and fight and kill? Why do all of that? Why do that for people who think you're crazy anyway?"

It's scary. The high voice is scary, but it is true. They will have to kill, they will have to so much. And the others probably think she's not okay, Takeru has even admitted to knowing she's not.

But...

Even so.

_"Please come back... I'm scared."_

"I want to," she says. "They're calling me."

"They won't call you forever," Hikari sees the small girl say. "They'll hate you soon enough."

"I'll accept that when it comes," Hikari murmurs. Because they might, and denying won't make the possibility any less feasible. "Why do you care?"

"Because if they hate you, they might kill you," the little girl says and smiles, fangs and all. "And I'm a part of you now, so I can't let that happen ever, okay? You're going to die when I want you to, and you're going to hurt whoever we want to hurt and get rid of whoever you want to. And you won't care, because I don't care."

The little girl releases her ankle with a giggle. "And you've never cared."

Unrestrained, Hikari floats up into the light and for some reason, it makes her cringe, squeezing her eyes shut.


	47. 4-12

4-12

When she opens them again, she sees a gray sky and feels wet earth on her bottom. She blinks. "Where...?"

"Hikari-san!"

Her vision is filled with yellow and green as Takeru tackles her chest and begins to cry. "You're okay!"

She reaches out, confused, and pats his head. "Takeru-kun... what's the matter?" Takeru doesn't answer, merely wails into her shoulder and, bewildered, continues to pat the back of his head. "Of course I'm all right... what is it?"

"Hikari-chan!"

"Hikari-san!"

The others are soon huddling around her, perhaps caught off-guard somehow. She feels Tailmon's purring against her back and relaxes a little.

"You got left behind," Mimi explains, waving her arms a little. "We looked all around and Yamato-kun was the last one!"

 _I left myself behind,_ she thinks to herself, recalling the deep water and the grinning self and before that, the shutting door.

"But then you were right there," Koushiro continues, pointing towards the edge of the cliff. "Floating."

"Floating?" She raises an eyebrow and glances at Tailmon, who nods. Agumon snorts.

"Humans ain't meant to fly," he tells her and she manages a weak giggle.

"I wasn't trying to," Hikari says, placing a hand to her temple. She envisions the other self again, and imagines the clammy hand on hers, grinning. "I... I don't know..."

"You were flickering too," Jyou says with a raised eyebrow. "Humans aren't supposed to become television sets."

Yamato has said nothing and she glances at him now. His cheeks are a little pink, and he's specifically looking at a nearby tree. "You looked like you were in pain. Kinda... freaked me out..." He's still avoiding her gaze and Hikari can't help but be amused.

"I'm all right now," she says, voice gentle. It's kind of cute, watching her friends worry. Then her light eyes harden, looking red, and she looks at her hands. "But Taichi might not be."

"It's only been a few minutes," Koushiro informs her softly, adjusting his bag straps. "We still have time."

Hikari nods and pulls herself up. "Then let's go."

She avoids thinking about if they have enough time. Because that would involve thinking about if it matters. And it should.

But the clammy sensation in her legs says it doesn't.


	48. 5-1

5-1

Before they head down the hill, she picks up a few pinecones, causing Tailmon to giggle.

It's more effort to convince the Digimon to stay quiet and still, except for Agumon, who for some reason, collapses into a Koromon-shaped blob and passes out in her lap. Tailmon makes mewls of laughter and Hikari tries to muffle her own giggles. Takeru pokes him a little when they get on the bus, but that's about all.

Everyone falls asleep on the bus, even her, exhausted somehow before everything has even come to an end. A pain clutches at her and she jolts awake. The voices are making excited coos, one of them a high-pitched giggling underwater, and she looks out the window. Her throat catches and Hikari shakes Sora awake.

Outside, a Digimon is flying across the street, literally flying. Its human head swishes left and right and it soars on. Hikari waves her hand frantically at Fujiyama-sensei, asking to stop the bus. The others are looking at her, all confused, but Takeru and Yamato bolt up after her as she runs out the door, bags and all. Tailmon hops to her paws, crouching, sniffing. The others, mostly Jyou, are fumbling explanations out but she is running, chasing the Digimon down as best as she can with worn human legs.

"Whazzup kid?" Koromon grumbles, half-asleep.

"Digimon. Human, flying Digimon!" She coughs this out and keeps pressing forward. She says it as loud as she dares. The voice underwater has made herself known and is chirping a chant that Hikari knows too well.

" _Kill, kill, kill-"_

Now is a really bad time.

"Hey, careful-"

Hikari loosens her grip on Koromon and continues the chase. Yamato is steps behind with the others. Now the Digimon have caught on and are quickly overtaking her, Gabumon actually looking not-so cuddly and plenty ferocious. "Careful, guys!" she calls anxiously.

She has her bet that it's a minion of Vamdemon, but she isn't sure until Koromon suddenly squirms. "Hey, lemme see 'em!"

"Koromon, you're as threatening as Miko right now," she tells him through a few pants for air.

"Doesn't mean I can't tell who it is, kid~" He bounces from her hands onto her head and blinks. "Woah... what? Ain't he supposed to have died? Like, I saw him cut down from the shoulder dead?"

Whoever that Digimon is, he gives a sudden dart to the left and vanished into the crowd, leaving the other Digimon to be stared at like a bunch of circus clowns.

The other gape but Hikari instantly jumps in front of them and bows. "Aren't they good?" she giggles, smiling. "These kids are learning to wear their costumes really well. Not a single hair out of place.

People smile and laugh and continue their walk and soon everyone is forgotten. Hikari sighs in low relief, pulling Koromon back from her head. That was reckless of her, but...

"Koromon, did you know that guy?"

Koromon is quiet. "Yeah..." he admits with a sigh. "But... he shouldn't be here. He helped me once, and I saw.. I saw him get blasted by that creepy vampire. He should have been dead."

"Couldn't he come back?"

"Not like that, not this soon." Koromon shakes his head-er, body-. "Anyway, where are we?"

Hikari looks around and smiles weakly. "Hikarigaoka," she says gently. "Where it all began."

Before she can elaborate, the ground shakes and a mammoth comes charging toward them, roaring.

Yamato knocks her out of the way and Birdramon lunges forward from seemingly nowhere, tackling her to the ground. Hikari winces at the feel of concrete on her arm and moves to push the male off.

Then her own kiddy voice shrieks laughter in her head and whispers.  _"It's here. It started here."_

Greymon died here.


	49. 5-2

5-2

Hikari forces herself up, even as the others are running to avoid the attacking mammoth. She notices from her safe place (which isn't much because she knows Yamato is as squishy as she is to a giant wooly mammoth) that the others have an odd look to their faces as they move. It's reflexive dodging, from weeks of avoiding flying hearts and pieces of spaceship, but it doesn't change the fact that they're distracted.

She will have to understand later. Right now...

"Everyone, side of the bridge!" It's the only place she can think of because she knows from experience that  _under_ the bridge without a blockade is asking for it. Thankfully, they snap out of it enough to listen to her, and she joins them to watch the battle, which is a bit too close to memories for comfort.

"Greymon..." she says to herself, rubbing Koromon's head. Koromon looks at her but says nothing, as Koushiro frowns.

"Greymon..." he murmurs thoughtfully. Then he snaps his fingers. "That's right... he was here, wasn't he? He was fighting... but fighting what?"

Hikari looks at him, at the camera around her neck. The camera used to be a whistle once upon a time.

She giggles, faintly, and so does the virus. She doesn't know what it thinks is funny, but she knows. The others don't make too much noise about it, clearly in some deep thought. But Takeru pulls at her pants and tilts his head. She hugs him, briefly aware that she doesn't feel sane, but that's not a problem.

"You guys..." she says over the roar of flames and a trumpeting trunk. "You guys saw Greymon. Remember? I told you about Greymon? You guys saw him. You must have!" He stares for a moment, puzzled. Then Takeru almost yelps, putting a hand to his head.

"Yeah... he fought a bird... a giant bird..."

"Everything was destroyed..." Yamato adds, slowly clenching his fists. "Why don't we... remember this?"

Jyou clicks his tongue. "It was a terrorist attack, according to the news."

Mimi snorts, voice shrilling mildly in mirth. "On a random suburban area? And just the bridge and streets? That's a bit too far of a coincidence!"

"But we believed it," Koushiro says. "Well... almost all of us believed it."

Hikari and Sora share one look before Birdramon almost crashes onto their heads. Sora runs forward and it takes Hikari's thinning self-control not to rush after her, not even when the sight of Garudamon charging forward is as clear as day. She twitches and shifts her Digivice to her hand.

"Taichi forgot too," she says, rubbing her eyes. "Why... why didn't I forget?"

_Because of us._

" _Because of me."_

Hikari cringes and Takeru glances at her face, Patamon in his arms. "Hikari-san?"

She smiles and pats his hat, waiting for the all-clear of Garudamon shrinking down to nothing more than a bulb. "I'm okay."

"No, you're not."

"Probably not," she amends, looking at the sky, then at the others. "We all... we need to go home, just for the night, maybe another. Our parents probably have gotten all these calls from the school, freaking them out when we ran off the bus. We need rest, food, and I... I need to talk to Taichi." Hikari pauses. "If you think it's wise, tell your parents what's going on. Better they know and be prepared if Vamdemon-" Her mind chuckles. "Blows the door down than be absolutely terrified when he does. See if they can help."

"And if they can't?" Yamato interjects. His arms are crossed and there's a comment at the tip of Hikari's tongue.

Sora grins mirthlessly. "Anybody have memory-wiping technology?"

They all look at Koushiro, who snorts. "I'll ask my parents for the kit for my birthday," he says, perfectly deadpan. They all laugh, if briefly. "I suppose I can practice climbing out a window."

Hikari smiles, and her head throbs. "We'll meet at that center park tomorrow afternoon, if that works. Bring your phonebooks, if you have them. If we all saw the fight back then..." She hesitates. "Who can say no one else did?"

"And Taichi?" Sora asks.

Hikari shakes her head. "I'll bring him... even if I have to rip off his goggles or stake Vamdemon in the head."

If it comes to either of those, something tells her the end result will be ugly anyway.


	50. 5-3

5-3

"Onee-chan!"

She has never been so happy to see a blue blur flying down the apartment stairs than right now. Koromon manages to get out of the way as her face is smothered by her brother's hair. She giggles with weak relief and hugs him tight. "Are you okay? How's your cold?" The mundane questions are the first things that pop into her mind, second to the uncrushed pinecones, which he clutches in his hands and holds tight as he babbles to her with delight about how he fell asleep watching Kyouruger and that he dreamed he was the super awesome  _orange one_  and that he protected his entire class. She doesn't have the heart to silence him, but he does it himself at the sight of Koromon.

His brown eyes brighten and he reaches out to the pink blob. Koromon looks like his first instinct is to bite down but he stops, letting Taichi pick him up and stare at him. For the moment, the two of them are quiet. Then Taichi grins. "You're smaller than I remember!"

Hikari giggles and Koromon makes a huffy noise. "I don't know you."

"I know you. We're pals."

When Taichi says it, his word is usually law. Certainly, Koromon has no way to disprove Taichi's side of the equation, and really, who can argue with an eight-year-old and win?

So she has to stifle all of her giggles as Koromon merely grumbles his assent. He doesn't quite believe it; she doesn't blame him, but Taichi will bring him around. He always does.

Hikari straightens Taichi out on the ground. "Go back inside," she scolds. "Your feet are going to get cold."

"But it's summer!"

"And you're still sick," she retorts with a stern scowl, though her lips twitch with the urge to laugh again. The voice of herself is quiet. Perhaps it is scared of Taichi. Realistically, she supposes she would be too.

Taichi is one of the reasons she hasn't gone tearing off into the dark like an idiot after Vamdemon after all. That and her poor parents, who aren't ready, who aren't-

" _Going to believe a word you say."_

The virus giggles again and the sad part is that she can't refute that. They have never believed her, not about this, barely about anything at all. They trust her, she knows that, but they never believe her.

" _No one does."_

The others did. She told them and they believed, even if it was for a moment.

Taichi is looking at her, so she smiles her discomfort away and points up the stairs. He grins, and takes Koromon into his arms, running up towards their apartment. Tailmon returns to her place in her arms, but then begins to hiss, a low noise coupled with twitching ears and an anxious squirm. Hikari lets her go and looks up, a new habit she is going to be happy to never break. But when Tailmon starts growling at whatever is behind her, she whips around.

"Didn't want to run away this time?" she asks, voice curt, eyes narrowing to slits and Tailmon crouches, looking at the Digimon from earlier that day with little more than fury.

The humanoid Digimon shifts back onto his back foot and frowns. "You... what are you?"

"It's complicated," she says, and the virus is twisting her smile. She should be holding it back, controlling it, but she can't. It's too soon, there's too many things to do, what if it comes out at her parents? "Does it matter?"

"Yes," the Digimon argues. "If you are a Child, I most certainly think it does."

"If you're the enemy, then let it be a different kind of concern." Hikari takes a step and Tailmon rushes forward, smacking a fist to land squarely against the staff in the Digimon's hand.

"Wait," he starts, raising his hands. "Please wait!"

"For you to call reinforcements?" Tailmon hisses, crouching to strike.

"No, please! I'm not here for that!" He shakes his head. "I'm not even supposed to be here at all!"

Hikari hesitates, then gestures to Tailmon. The cat slinks back, still glaring furiously at the Digimon. "Then where are you supposed to be?"

The Digimon doesn't lower his staff, just as paranoid as she is. "Bowing," he finally says. "Bowing to someone who wanted me dead. I didn't want to."

"So," Hikari pauses and the voice titters in her brain. "What do you want from us?"


	51. 5-4

5-4

"I... I want you to keep Agumon out of this battle."

Well. This escalated quickly.

"I'm sorry?"

The Digimon stops, thinks, and sits on one of the nearby planters. "Please... let me start at the beginning." She doesn't sit down, but waves her hand for him to continue. He shifts, surprised and clearly uncomfortable. She doesn't blame him. Hikari has little patience right now, probably due to a lack of sleep and too many things to think about.

" _It's better for me,"_ the voice chirps.  _"But you'll rest soon, because you're not allowed to die because you didn't sleep enough."_

She ignores the virus and fixes the Digimon with a level stare. It nods. "I am Wizarmon... not too long ago... I joined Vamdemon's forces. I was desperate, cast-off from my home and alone. I needed a way to survive, you see... so I took it." He looks at her eyes, desperate for something. He gets sympathy, if that's what he wants, but she doesn't say a word. "Immediately, I was put in charge of training a young Agumon. I know he's the one with you now, no one can sound like a gutter as much as him."

Despite herself, Hikari cracks a smile.

The tension eases out of his shoulders and he nods, resting his legs. "I... he was very kind to me. He kept an eye on me, despite being half my power."

"Did his scars come from protecting you?"

Her voice remains soft, almost awe-worthy, but she keeps her eyes narrowed and stern. Wizarmon nods and smiles.

"So I tried to help him escape. He tried it very, very often, and once he got very, very close. But we got caught, and punished. I should have died."

"Didn't he kill you?" Tailmon's question is a bit too calm for a cat that is trying to not gouge out eyeballs.

Wizarmon shakes his head. "I made it look like I died, as a punishment, and was kept by Vamdemon's side... a  _pet_ as it were."

Hikari nods, crossing her arms. "Do you really think I can stop him from fighting?"

"Would you try?"

Tailmon raises an eyebrow and Hikari smiles, a cool smile amidst the fire rushing in her head. "No. I can't ask him not to after he already said he would."

He rises to his feet again to look at her, wide-eyed, horrified. Then he slumps. "I was afraid you would say that. Then... you must come with me, as soon as you can."

Instantly, Hikari tenses again. "Why? I trusted you about Agumon, but I have no reason to trust you with my life."

Wizarmon nods. "I respect your paranoia on this... but if you are going to fight... you need to get your Crest back. We need to take the fight to him... if we have to." She watches sewn lips curl. "He will not take it well, and we can use that to our advantage."

Hikari pauses and nods. "Tomorrow," she says. "I need tonight. Just give me tonight, and meet us tomorrow."

Wizarmon smiles weakly. "Thank you."

Hikari gives him a stone stare. "Don't thank me. If Vamdemon goes after Agumon, he'll go after Taichi. I  _won't_  let my brother die."  _Or end up like Takeru-kun._

She doesn't know if it would be worse if her brother died, or Agumon. In a happy world, she'd pick neither. In a lucky world, it would be Agumon. In a desperate world, it would be herself.

She can easily say which option she would pick, without any doubt.


	52. 5-5

5-5

Wizarmon leaves, and she hurries up the stairs. Taichi thankfully has not come after her yet, which she can only assume means Koromon and her parents have her brother thoroughly distracted. Hikari gives Tailmon a gentle swat on the head. "Time to stop growling. We have to talk to mom and dad."

Tailmon pouts and strides toward her. Outside the door, she pauses and makes a mewing noise. Hikari turns and kneels, holding out her hands with obvious confusion.. With careful reluctance, she hands her human her gloves and the ring at her tail. Hikari takes them slowly, looking at the crestfallen expression on the cat's face.

"Tailmon...?"

"I... um..." The Digimon fidgets. "I don't want to scare them. Human cats... they don't look like I do, do they?"

"Well, for one they have smaller heads," Hikari quips, taking the objects into one hand, scooping her partner up with the other. "I'm sorry, Tailmon, but... just for a little bit?"

Tailmon nods. She flexes her white paws with a small mewl, trying to sound helpless. "I give up," she mumbles. "This is weird." Hikari sympathizes. They had been fighting too much, being defenseless, open, it just... it was very uncomfortable, to say the least.

"Ssh. I'll talk then." She strokes her partner's ears and enters the house. "I'm home," she murmurs quietly, taking in her parents in the places they always tended to be. Her mother cooking, her father drinking beer and watching the news... it's too mundane, too pristine.

The virus couldn't wait to destroy it.

She grimaces, but forces a smile when her mother looks at her. Curiosity, concern, relief, joy, they are all in the way her mother comes to greet her. There is also that thin line of mistrust, and it hurts, but she lets it slide. Hikari smiles at her mother, holding the cat. "She came home with me."

Tailmon mewls and Taichi laughs, both of them looking at each other like there was a great game afoot. Her mother sighs, but reaches her hand out to scratch at one of Tailmon's large ears. The ears flick under her touch and droop. Without meaning to, Tailmon purrs. "Can we keep her?" Hikari pleads, knowing that the battle really is already won. Tailmon is purring louder and nudging at her mother's fingers and Hikari knows from the time she got Miko that she's already caused her mother to fall in love.

"She's a bit bigger than Miko," her mother hedges and Taichi tugs at her skirt.

"Please! Nee-chan likes her!" Her brother isn't always observant, but it seems like he's using every single one of his few skills to help her. He knows, she realizes. He is very aware that there is something wrong and that Hikari will need to do something about it.

Hikari smirks at the understatement, carrying her partner over to sit on the couch. Taichi jumps next to her, Koromon now on his head. "Enjoying your souvenir?" Koromon's lips twitch but that's all he does around the other humans.

Taichi grins. "He's so awesome. Where'd you find him?" Hikari glances at the Tag and Crest still around his neck, at the way his hands are firmly shoved into his pajama pockets. He has his goggles sitting on the table. Oh yes, her brother is ready for an adventure. But is he ready for  _this_ one?

It doesn't matter about ifs. It's happening anyway.

"I told you," she says, smiling and barely playing along. "In the other world."

"Yeah," he says, sidling up to lay his head on her lap. "But you didn't tell me  _about_ that place."

"Because I was waiting for this moment." She feels her parents watching her and says in a very soft, very flat voice. "Mom, Dad, you don't have to believe me, but... I need you to understand. Taichi and I are going to leave tomorrow, and you're going to do the same thing. But we aren't going to go the same direction. You're going to leave the city."

She looks at them and lets her eyes narrow, expression turning as cold as the ice in her father's glass.

She's going to break the mundane illusion. She has no choice.

Hikari smiles. "If you don't leave, someone might capture you, or kill you. Someone not human. Someone very evil. He's after Taichi and me and my friends. And if you get hurt because of that..." She shakes her head, eyes crestfallen. "I will never forgive myself."

She knows that she just gave them the worst bombshell with no explanation. Hikari can feel that as strongly as she can hear the gigging in her mind.

" _You made so much sense."_

She doesn't care. They need to go.

Her father breaks the puzzled silence first and says. "That's impossible."

Hikari laughs. She isn't quite sure what her father is referring to, but no matter what it is...

"it's the truth."


	53. 5-6

5-6

"Hikari... start from the beginning." Her father's voice is cajoling in contrast with her mother's bubbling to make a sound.

Every fiber of her being screams not to do that because that's just stalling at this point and she doesn't deny herself the shake of the head. "Too long of a story and you won't believe it. Please just pack and get ready to leave in the morning."

"And leave you two alone?"

Hikari twitches and the virus snorts. Tailmon bats at her head, mewing. Hikari pokes her nose and earns a grumbling meow for her trouble. "We aren't going to be alone." She brushes at Tailmon's ear and twists gently.  _Wait._

Taichi is shifting in silence, looking between her and her parents like he's watching a tennis match. Koromon is twitching to yawn.

Now her mother can't control herself. "A cat can't protect you, whether there's something out there or not!" Hikari winces and her mother's expression softens. "Hikari, please. Just tell us what this is about."

"I'm trying." It's true, she is trying. The words are right at the tip of her tongue, but the word Digimon isn't leaving her lips no matter how close it gets.

" _It's more fun to make you look crazy."_

_Damn it._

She sighs and moves her hands. This is the best loophole she can think of. "Tailmon? It's okay." The cat looks up, nods, and hops to sit on the table.

"I will protect Hikari." Her voice is not loud, but it is clear focus and bloodthirsty loyalty. She takes the gloves and ring from Hikari's fingers and pulls them on, as smoothly as one would cover a human hand. "I will protect Taichi," she continues, blue eyes narrowing. "They are  _mine_."

Her mother slumps, not fainted, but in shock. Hikari watches her father stare, putting his arm out in front of him like that will really stop her Tailmon. Koromon lets out a snort. "What, have you never seen a talking cat before?"

Her mother utters a small whimper and Taichi glowers at Koromon. "You aren't supposed to scare her like that!"

Koromon shrugs his feeler ears and Hikari chuckles before turning to her parents once more. "I'm sorry," she says. "I wish I could say more, but I can't. I will! Someday. But... I know you think I'm crazy, and I just might be a little, but... you know that I can protect Taichi." Her fists clench and she smiles. "I can always protect Taichi."

" _Until I don't want you to."_

_It will never come to that._

" _Hmm... we'll see!"_

Taichi nods, eyes sparkling. "And I will protect Nee-chan!"

Koromon chuckles. "I like yer fire kid." Taichi grins.

Hikari takes a deep breath. "I'm going to run away with Taichi tomorrow whether you're okay with it or not." She doesn't want to, who wants to run away from home? But she will. She will take him and run as far as she can and not regret a single thing because she has to protect him and kill  _that damn demon_.

" _At least we agree on killing him!"_

The voice sounds so happy about this that it scares her a little.  _Didn't he create you?_

" _That doesn't mean I like him! He doesn't have any interesting plans I bet, other than make you suffer. But anybody can do that, right? Anybody can hurt someone. It takes great work to destroy someone."_ Another giggle.  _"But we know all about that. We'll eradicate him."_

The thought of it sounds nice. Maybe not as entertaining as her young self seems to think it is, but it sounds nice, painful. It sounds like a stress reliever.

She sounds insane.

Sadly enough the longer this goes on the less she cares. What will she miss if she goes insane anyway?

Her father touches her hand and Hikari looks up at him. He has that quiet smile, the one that she used to share soda with while watching Taichi in the park.

"Okay," he says. "We'll trust you. I wish you would say more, but..."

"You've always kept to yourself, Hikari," her mother says, quietly pulling herself back up. "You'll tell us when you're ready, and no sooner." The woman frowns and claps her hands. "I'd best start cooking then."

Hikari smiles, weak with relief and delirium.

She is so tired.


	54. 5-7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the kudo new person!~

5-7

The next morning, she is awake with the sun. Her brain is hazy still, but with a virus rooting around inside her head, Hikari is grateful she's awake right now. The chipper voice says something, but she ignores it, taking the time to pack her bag and clean up. She examines her clothing, both with practicality and impatience. She's not going to wait for Taichi to wake, no, but she wishes Tailmon didn't have to sleep so long to heal.

Hikari tugs at her jean jacket, loops her Tag around her neck and pauses. The normally clear space is looking grayer than she remembers and she fiddles with it. Does this mean anything in particular? Or is she just being paranoid?

Considering paranoia has kept her alive, she keeps an eye on it while she continues to dress, clipping the Digivice to a place on her belt and pulling a bag of supplies together because she's not taking a risk that she will survive another Bloody Stream. (If she does, what does that mean?)

Then, she taps at Tailmon's ear. She had been curled on Hikari's pillow, and opens her eyes at once to jump down for Koromon. Hikari hesitates at the sight of Taichi's peaceful sleeping face, arms wrapped around Koromon like they had been once before. Then she pokes his cheek. "Up, Taichi."

He whines, and slits his eyes open. "Nee-chan...?"

"Come on, dress. I'll give you piggyback ride if you hurry."

"Kay..." He moves to obey and she goes to the kitchen to scribble a note to her still-sleeping parents. She's not sure why she's making them leave without saying goodbye when it could risk them running after them instead of leaving like they promised...

Well, maybe she's just given up on promises.

" _They wouldn't keep it anyway..."_

"You don't know that..."

" _I do if you do..."_

"Hush," she mutters absently, looking to see two bento boxes with sticky notes on them. Inwardly, she smiles. Her mother may not always take her at her word, but she does always know her daughter's actions ahead of time.

"Onee-chan... who are you talking to?" Taichi is leaning on her, still sleepy, but at least he's wearing actual pants and socks now.

Hikari musses his messy hair and smiles. "Just thinking aloud," she says softly. "Koromon?"

" _Agumon,"_ grumbles the dinosaur. "Evolved in my sleep. That is weird. Don't make me do that again, whichever one of you did it."

Hikari blinks, giggles, and looks at Taichi. In his hands glows a pale Digivice, which he stares at now, puzzled. She isn't going to ask where it came from because really, silly question about all of this. "Come on now Taichi, hold onto my bag, okay?"

"I can carry him," Agumon comments. "You need to be able to move and unlike you, I can break metal."

" _I'm not so sure we can't..."_

She ignores the virus and nods, letting Agumon put the boy against his spikes. "You're really small," taichi murmurs.

"You aren't exactly tall yourself."

Tailmon makes her way over. "Come on," she says. They head to the door, but the phone rings, causing Hikari to pick it up.

"Hello?"

"Hikari-san... are you there?"

"Koushiro-kun?"

"Please look outside. There's a fog. And... are your parents awake?"

"No," Hikari begins, looking towards the screen door. It's awfully thick but she doesn't see the significance. "They're asleep."

"Please check for sure," her friend requests. His voice is shaking, she realizes. Carefully, she lowers the receiver and knocks on her parents' door. No answer, not even a snore. Gently, she eases it open.

Her parents are laying flat on their backs. It's a stiff motion, she notices, stiff and with slow, almost non-existent breaths. Hikari moves closer and they don't even twitch. Both are staring up at the ceiling, eyes blank, air soundlessly leaving their mouths. Her fingers scrabble over her mother's wrist and the pulse is slow, like deep sleep.

Like a foggy sleep.

She shuts the door behind her and rushes towards the phone. "Koushiro-kun, call the others. Park in twenty."

"N-No problem!" He clicks off and Hikari heads to the door.

"Come on," she urges, opening it and letting them leave. She locks the door behind them. Not much of a safeguard, but at this point, she has no clue what will or won't happen. She just knows she can't let them get caught.

"Onee-chan?" Taichi says and he sounds more awake.

Hikari grimaces as she tears down the stairs. "Mom and Dad will be fine Taichi. But we need to go, before we get caught too."

He nods from where he is leaning over Agumon's head. His brown eyes are worried, but fierce and she grins.

"That's my baby brother."

She says that, and then something explodes.

" _Great timing, huh?"_


	55. 5-8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the new kudo~

5-8

Agumon growls low and picks up the pace of his running speed. It's good that he's off the stairs because Hikari doubts attempting that sort of running while with feet the size of a baby horse is stress-free. Tailmon coughs at the smoke but leaps from Hikari's grasp, bolting into the cloud and yelling for them to follow.. Hikari does, only looking up to see a man in a trenchcoat staring at her. She scowls and sticks out her tongue on a childish ( _abnormal?)_ impulse and hurries on.

Her steps feel somehow lighter, skin tingling. Her heads spins for a moment, drawing her eyes up to a shadowed building. Blue eyes are heavy on her back and she finds herself hissing a cry of anger through her teeth. "Agumon!"

She knows Taichi is flinching but the dinosaur looks at her with too much calm and says, "Yeah?"

"Can you get Taichi out of here?"

Agumon gives her a tilted head as they round to hide behind a building. Hikari looks to see the streets are too quiet, too still, with scattered cars here and there.  _Vamdemon,_ she thinks.  _What are you trying to do?_

" _Get us."_

She's pretty sure the virus is at least half-right and turns to Agumon, who is lowering Taichi to the ground. "I need him off so I can evolve," explains the yellow creature. As he says this, the boy pulls a Digivice from his pocket.

At her questioning look, her brother says, nervously. "I found it under the table last night." The screen glows gentle green and Hikari smiles.

"That's proof of it then." Tailmon runs to her side and Hikari kneels, scratching behind her cat's large ear with one hand. "Agumon is your precious friend. So, Taichi, you need to go with him right now."

"Nee-chan-"

"You remember where our favorite park is right?" she cuts in. Her eyes rest on him and lock with his. "Listen, Taichi, your Nee-chan is about to go do something  _really_ stupid on her own, so I need you to get the others and come after me."

"Then just wait and we'll go do it together!" He says this with the most sense she has ever heard him use in his life.

Too bad Hikari can't trust it. "We'll be noticed. It's bad enough I'm going, but eight people and their digimon? Not happening. If it's just me, if I get caught, there will still be the cavalry." His expression remains stubborn and set, and she pinches his cheek. "Hey, hey, what's with the doubt? I  _always_ come back, don't I?"

"But..." Taichi shakes his head. "Isn't that guy after me? Isn't this  _my_ fault? Shouldn't  _I_ go?"

"Don't screw around kid." Agumon has finished evolving, and proceeds to pick up her brother and throw him back onto his shoulders. "Sure, that guy's after you, but that's 'cause he's cray. That got nuthin' to do with you. B'sides, we've known each other for whut? A few hours? Those two have had each other forever. If anyone knows how to be a team, it's dem. Trust yer sis. She's strong."

Taichi smiles weakly. "Yeah... Onee-chan's strong." He puts his Digivice away again. "I'll bring everyone! So make sure you come back!"

Hikari smiles and salutes.

"How'm I gonna find you girly?" Greymon asks, crouching to run.

Wizarmon floats to land at her side, and Hikari suppresses the urge to kick him straight to the ground. He holds out a pink crest, which is glowing at the proximity with her Tag. "Fake Crest," he explains. "They didn't have the Tag; Vamdemon worked with what he had." He throws it to Taichi, who clutche it tight in one fist. "That will glow when you're close. Go!"

Greymon squints at him. "You..."

"Long story," Wizarmon says, tipping his hat.

The dinosaur shrugs. "Tell me later then. Hang on ya nutter kiddo!" He stomps off into the streets and Hikari sees Taichi clamp his goggles on his forehead.

Waiting only a few moments, she then turns to Wizarmon. "Lead the way. I've answered your request as best as I can."

Wizarmon bows with a tight smile. "Your eyes are blue."

Hikari shrugs. "It's better than red, isn't it?"


	56. 5.5-1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Four part interlude, then onto the next arc. Coming to an end soon, guys!

5.5-1

Keep running, keep the pace, just go and don't think that you might have just led Taichi to his death-

-Because you  _didn't_.

" _If he dies, you die. I know you will at least try your hardest to die if he does anyway. Can't risk that at_ all,  _nope, nope! I still need you!"_

"Aren't we the same person?" she mutters and her younger self smiles.

" _Now, you're getting it!"_

Tailmon is running, practically flying. She doesn't know why she doesn't try evolving Tailmon but maybe she just wants her Crest, maybe she wants to  _choke the bastard demon's throat with her-_

"What's wrong with me?" she whispers, coming to a halt. "I shouldn't think these things, I can't!"

" _But you are!"_  The virus sighs.  _"You're thinking them more because I'm here, but you've always had these feelings, always! You can't deny it, Hikari, you're as much a demon as he is."_

"I'm not," Hikari says to no one, ignoring Wizarmon's eyes. "I can't be a demon, I  _can't_."  _Not when there's still so much to do, not when those voices call me an angel..._

The child tuts.  _"Well, those voices are_  wrong _."_

"What do you know?"

" _What good-natured voices would tell a_ killer  _she's an angel?"_


	57. 5.5-2

5.5-2

Hikari picks up her feet again and runs faster, not answering the voice, not acknowledging it, just running, running forward. Toward the demon, towards the monster... toward her  _prey._

_I'm not a monster, I'm not..._

" _Not yet. Stop caring and you will be. You'll even be proud of it too!"_

She imagines her child-self drawing a smiley-face in the air.

"I don't want to," she says to the air. Tailmon is not flinching, not questioning. In fact... are her eyes red?

She can't think about it now.

"Where is he?" she asks Wizarmon, hoping to distract herself, to annoy the virus. "Well, I guess the better question would be: what do I need to expect when I get there?" She isn't sure if she trusts Wizarmon or not but she's kept her part of the bargain. The least he can do for leading her into a death trap is give her some warning.

For a moment he is silent and she ponders if he plans on not telling her. Then he says, "Most of his forces are out of the safeplace now because they're rushing to kidnap people and bring them to a certain place. I didn't hear where, unfortunately."

"Is it the sleeping adults?" she asks as Tailmon takes to her back, preferring to save her energy and be a well-focused radar. Well, as focused as her partner ever  _is_. She swears the cat needs medication... about as much as she does some days.

Wizarmon hesitates, then nods. "I can't say I understand why he put them to sleep but I do understand the plan is moving a lot faster than it was intended."

"Why?"

Wizarmon pauses a moment then shakes his head. "You."


	58. 5.5-3

5.5-3

"I scare an immortal vampire?"

She can't believe that. There's no logic in it, no sense. She weighs all the amount of a fully-grown Black Labrador and is about as intimidating as  _Koromon_ most of the time. Even Bastemon isn't that intimidating and she's a vampire cat.

"How?" she asks, half-exasperated, half-horrified because this just might prove the virus is right. The child-self giggles because it  _is_ right and she just doesn't want to admit it.

Or so she thinks.

Wizarmon shrugs. "You survived him. That automatically puts you at the top of his priorities next to world domination."

Hikari skids to a halt because she has to actually think about that. Wizarmon stops again, looking cross but she raises a hand. She is thinking, twisting how to work this to her advantage. "He's speeding up his plans because I've survived him... logical... he's putting many humans to sleep so they can't fight back... it's suddenly very foggy... did he make the fog?"

Tailmon swishes her tail anxiously and Wizarmon nods. "I saw him last night. The spell took a toll on him though, so even with the reduced sunlight, he's probably hiding. If we want a good chance to get out with our skin and bones intact, it's probably now."

"Even though he's in there..." Hikari sighs. "I can't believe I have to fight a psychopathic manchild who wants to kill my brother."

" _Correction, you want to kill a psychopathic man-child who wants to kill your brother, because the voices said he was evil and because it's not nice to take things away from other people."_

"Hush," she repeats to herself, but it only giggles and Wizarmon glances at her.

"I didn't say anything."

"Probably a good thing," she replies, hurrying on. "I have a dangerous idea."

"Most people do. It's a curse of thinking."

"Curse is the right way to put it," she agrees, pulling out her Digivice. "Tailmon, can Bastemon fight in enclosed spaces, like hallways?"

Tailmon giggles. "I can sure try!"

That should not comfort her as much as it does, but Tailmon trying is the implication that it will work out, come hell or high water.

It's likely to be hell first.

"Okay," she says softly. "Be ready to do it, okay Tailmon?"

"Okay Hikari!"

She loves her partner. She loves her loyalty, her understanding, her insanity.

Because they all belong to Hikari herself. And Hikari isn't sure she herself will have the first two traits at the end of today.

She isn't sure she needs them anymore.


	59. 5.5-4

5.5-4

They stop outside a storage center and Hikari takes a few moments to rest. Her fingers are around the Digivice as she sits behind a wall, one arm draped around her legs. She sits on the concrete, listening to the air move. In her ears, the voices whisper, frantic in a way that said she was close. Close to what?

The end?

Her end?

The end of her usefulness?

Well, that would make things easier if that was the case. Maybe that meant she wouldn't have to fight anymore.

 _There are always enemies to fight,_  they say.  _But the one we need you for is almost in your hands._

Why did she have to defeat Vamdemon? There were eight of them, and Vamdemon was looking for Taichi in the first place.  _Not that I want Taichi to fight him... but why do I have to be alone?_

_Because that's all you'll ever be._

" _How dramatic,"_ she hears her other self sneer, and she agrees with that sentiment. The virus is sounding too sensible, much too much so. It kind of hurts... to be honest. All of it hurts.

But she's about to fight the demon, so Hikari knows this little ache is the least of her worries. She's more worried about Wizarmon, whose frantic whispers to Tailmon are clear, even to her.

"Can we really trust her?"

"I can, not sure about you," her cat replies tartly. Hikari contains a smile.

"She talks to herself. Even Digimon are afraid of that."

"So what? Hikari is my Hikari. I don't care if she wants to sleep in her night watch or kill an immortal bastard." Tailmon taps her foot and rakes her claws against the wall. "I will stay with Hikari as long as I can. I will make her laugh. I will slaughter anyone who hurts her, and I will rip apart anyone who dares make her cry."

Wizarmon shifts and Tailmon continues. "To be honest, I'm not sure if that includes you or not. You're so twitchy... so concerned." The raking noise grew closer to her ears. "I don't think Hikari would be mad if I hurt you... but I don't think she'd be happy either." She moves her claws away, the sound falling to silence. "I don't care what happens to me. If Hikari made an enemy of the world... I would destroy the world."

" _Why?"_

Tailmon laughs. "Because I don't want to lose her."

Hikari doesn't cry. She doesn't.

Okay, maybe she cries a little. And that's okay.

 _I'll live, Tailmon,_  she whispers in her mind.  _No matter what, I'll live as long as I can. So you don't have to lose me._

_So no one has to lose me._

There are words beneath those thoughts, but they go unspoken, as her Tag begins to warm.


	60. 6-1

6-1

Inside, it is dark and gloomy. Somehow, this isn't surprising in the slightest. In fact, it's hilarious. Hikari doesn't laugh, but slinks down the stairs in her best impression of Tailmon. To her credit, it apparently works or there really is no one here because a stair creaks and no one is moving. Or maybe they're smart and hiding in the shadows. They'd better move fast then because Hikari just wants her Crest.

If she can kill the demon in the process, it would be Valentine's Day and an aced set of exams all in one.

She doesn't think she'll be that lucky.

Wizarmon floats only feet ahead, staff alight like a torch in the gloomy darkness. Hikari wonders if it's for melodrama or if the light actually hurts the scaly thing that is Vamdemon. It wouldn't surprise her, but she hopes that's true. If he's a stereotypical vampire, then she has many ways to kill him. Or Bastemon has many ways to kill him, she's not sure about her.

" _We'll find a way!"_

She does not want to know what that means.

Wizarmon stops and he looks around the area. Tailmon sits on his head, ears twitching towards sounds. For all of her dislike of Wizarmon, at least her cat understands working with him is necessary for the moment.

Wait... for the moment? What were they going to do when this was over?

" _Kill him?"_

No... he doesn't deserve that...

" _But what if he wants it?"_

No. No mercy kill. Not even if he asked. No, that was not and never would be okay.

" _Suit yourself... even the angels think he's better off dead!"_

She ignores this as Wizarmon hurries forward, shushing her and her echoing footsteps. He points his staff at her and lifts her up in the air. Hikari grimaces. This is not something she wants to get used to.

"It's better than your feet stomping around," he says. Does he sound a little petulant? She supposes she can't blame him.

"Ssh!" Tailmon stamps on his hat. "There's something coming!

Hikari tenses as Wizarmon darkens his staff and pulls them against the wall. Then they wait. A ghost passes by them, looking dazed and disinterested as it goes through the opposite wall and out of sight.

Hikari wants to laugh, but her chest has become heavy and her Tag pulses gently at her ribs.

How far down do they have to go?


	61. 6-2

6-2

Further down, the staircase starts to tremble. She doesn't hesitate to stop mid-movement, even with Wizarmon trying to pull her back. "You really want to stay still and risk rubble falling on us?" she asks, pulling Tailmon to her arms. The less magic he has to use the better, she believes.

_Will I be able to win this fight? Or even survive it?_

_We will make it happen._

She doesn't know what that will entail, so she just keeps moving. Suddenly, Tailmon hisses and Wizarmon shoots a bolt of lightning from his staff, electrocuting a familiar bat. PicoDevimon glowers. "I wondered when you would show up," he sneers, but Hikari notes the expression lacks bite, and holds more fear. He's looking from her eyes to Wizarmon and is trying to snarl, but is edging back.

"You aren't a fighter, are you?" she says softly. PicoDevimon looks at her and laughs.

"Ya think?"

Tailmon hisses, tail lashing, and PicoDevimon backpedals on his claws. Hikari shushes her and kneels. "Why are you still here?"

The bat smirks. "Because Vamdemon-sama will kill you."

Wizarmon grabs Tailmon by the arms and Hikari snorts. "I wouldn't be surprised," she admits. "Do I look that frightening to you?" The Child winces and Hikari smiles. She pats the creature's head and sighs. "I do, huh? A little humans scares one of you... how cute."

Now PicoDevimon snarls and lunges forward. "Don't you get cocky," he half-shrieks. "Vamdemon will kill you and string you up as an example to the rest of your punks. Or, even better, yes!" He laughs and flaps his wings, rising up again. "He'll use you to get your brother and make you watch him-"

_Whack._

Hikari had swung, much, much harder than she had meant to. Her chest heaves, empty Tag glowing as she steps forward to where she had slammed PicoDevimon into the nearby wall. She moves closer, fist clenched. Her Digivice sparks and cries but she pays it no attention. Her younger voice is giggling, positively shreeing with delight. She kneels again by the dazed Digimon's face and smiles, wrapping her hand around one of his wings. The smile doesn't hurt as much as her voice.

"I was going to offer you a deal," she says softly. "I don't kill you, you tell me there's a trap. Changed my mind. I know there's a trap now, you have no useful information, so I need a reason to not let Tailmon rip you apart like she really, really wants to."

PicoDevimon squeaks, opening his mouth to retaliate, but she doesn't care.

"You are a little demon, and you tried to make Yamato-kun and Takeru-kun hate each other. Not okay." She stops and the Virus giggles. "You threatened my little brother's life.  _Definitely_ not okay. I know that you are evil, and somewhat intelligent. And you know that I am the Child of Light. However, here's a new piece of information." Her smile widens, and she thinks for a moment that she is quite insane.

"No one said light means good, did they?"

Hikari releases him and stands up. "So... beg for your life?"


	62. 6-3

6-3

"N-Not a chance!" the devil squeaks. "I-If I'm going to die, it will be loyal to Vamdemon-sama! So j-just get it over with! I've already done all I needed to do."

Hikari glances at him. "You mean that?"

His spherical body trembles, but he nods, and closes his eyes, waiting for the attack. "We- We know where that kid you were with is! We'll find him! I saw him myself!" He says this quickly, as if hoping that will make the pain faster. She watches him, letting Tailmon down to pad closer to him. Her claws rake down his face, slicing jagged scratches into his skin. He flinches and peeks open an eye. Hikari smiles.

"Your body doesn't lie as well as you think you do." She picks him up and Tailmon looks at her askance.

"Hikari?"

"Sssh," she says. "He's taking your spot for a minute."

PicoDevimon squirms. "Let me go, you-"

"Nope," she says softly. "I want to play a game. And since you won't beg, I have to find something new to do. Wizarmon, can you paralyze him?"

Wizarmon nods and Hikari lets the Digimon down again. PicoDevimon hurries to fly away, but an electric ball slams him down to the ground, which proceeded to be a tumble down a flight of stairs.

"Did you mean for that to happen?" Hikari asks, and Wizarmon's eyes twinkle with mirth.

"Nothing's too good to do to him."

A small part of her cringes, but the rest gives a stiff nod and a smile, marching forward down the steps. Below her comes an unearthly wail and Hikari can't help a sigh. "Can't even wait long enough to see my smiling face looking up at you," she says to the air, clenching a hand over her chest and Tag. Her legs feel like jelly and lead all at once but she forces them on. The voices have begun to whisper again but the virus is silent.

She is not sure if she is grateful for this or not. She probably should be frightened.

But she isn't that either.

_Be the Light._

What did she have to do to do that? To get them to be quiet and leave her alone.

PicoDevimon shrieks again and Tailmon snorts. "What, is he dying?"

Wizarmon shakes his head. "He wishes."

"Vamdemon-sama, what are you doing?" There is the sound of a crack, and something striking a concrete floor, and PicoDevimon screams, his wail growing higher and higher in pitch. Hikari feels her stomach curl and makes her way to the bottom stair.

"Is that supposed to scare me?" she asks, stepping into view. "And are all your minions masochists?"

"Are you really a human child?" Wizarmon mutters out of the side of his mouth.

" _Not anymore,"_ her younger self croons. Hikari ignores that because implications are not her concern right now.

A cloud of bats rushes toward her with a resonating screech and she drops to the ground with Tailmon giggling. Now was really not the time.

Maybe that's all Tailmon can do at the sight of those bats: laugh. Laugh and mock and fight back because the owner of those bats is dangerous and the only thing you can really do when you're back against the wall is smile and fight back anyway.

The superior  _hate_  to be mocked.

Vamdemon is one of them. "Is this a game to you?"

Hikari throws herself forward, reaching toward where a pale pink light pulses at his chest in unison with her Tag. "It should be!" Tailmon leaps, scratching at Vamdemon's face. Vamdemon tosses her roughly back into Hikari, and they hit the wall. Hikari hisses and Vamdemon laughs. He licks his lips and Hikari's eyes are drawn against their will to look at the other side of the wall. Women... unconscious, likely cold females, are laying there, almost in a pile.

Oh hell.

Hikari smiles anyway. "Hungry, big boy?"


	63. 6-4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A note: No matter when I finish this fic next month, the sequel will either be out the last week of February or the first full week of March, just to recover brain cells. Since we're coming to the end, I figure I should pass that on.
> 
> Enjoy and let me know what you think!

6-4

"Ravenous."

His voice is as soft as hers, and it feels like there is a great, sad secret between them. But Hikari pushes it away and laughs.

"Time to go on a diet then." She punches him, hard enough to make her fingers hurt and yanks her Tag from her neck, thrusting it toward the glowing pink light. He snorts and throws her to hit the wall a second time. It doesn't hurt, but she feels blood dripping and swears there might have been a cracking noise. She hopes she's wrong about the last one, but at this point, concussion or something else is better than dead.

"You're stubborn, even though you know you walked into-gah!" Wizarmon blasts him in the back and the vampire stumbles forward. Hikari shoves the Tag forward again and grits her teeth.

"Quieter too," she mutters. PicoDevimon soars toward her on bleeding wings but Tailmon knocks him down with a simple slash, lashing her tail with anger.

"Keep away from her, you damn pest!"

Hikari smiles her thanks and the Tag shines, ripping through robe fabric-

It's only because she's desperate that she doesn't pull back.

_Her Crest in in his chest, at his heart._

" _Ewwww..."_ the Virus giggles. "That's weird."

She agrees. "You are a psychopath, aren't you?" Hikari mutters rhetorically. The Tag is starting to burn her palm but she really has no choice but to keep pushing at him because the least she can do if she can't kill Vamdemon is take the one thing he might be using and warping and... oh.

"God damn you," she snaps because Light is not good anymore and neither is she. "You warped my  _Crest_."

Vamdemon laughs. "Well, leaving it to rot on a shelf isn't exactly putting it to good use, now is it?" He raises a free hand.  _"Bloody Stream!"_

Hikari isn't sure who screams louder, her or Tailmon.

The Tag burns her palm, her body bleeds, and the Virus is humming in her ears.

" _Let it go. It's too late to be the good girl. Let it go."_

She can't yet. She can't.

Suddenly, Vamdemon howls and Hikari hits the ground.

Someone is calling her name. She can't see who it is, but it sounds familiar. "Hikari-chan!"

"Onee-chan!"

Vamdemon laughs. "Look how much your friends care."

 _Idiots,_  her brain thinks with pride as her blood trickles into the tiled floor.  _The whole lot of you are stupid._

_It's too late for me._

_At the very least, I'm taking that bastard with me._


	64. 6-5

6-5

She's not sure if she's dying or not but she struggles to her knees anyway. Tailmon is hissing, each fur bristling like a porcupine quill. She can't see it, but Hikari can feel it, each sound pulsing in her body in tune with her heart.

 _He has my Crest,_  she thinks dimly, forcing herself to one knee.

"Hikari-chan you have to stop moving, you're losing a lot of blood." Sora. Her hands are snaking to pull her back to the floor, but Hikari resists, feebly pulling herself back up. "This is reckless, stop!"

"He has..." she coughs, grinning. "My Crest. He's feeding off of it... You don't have a chance..."  _Unless I get it._

Vamdemon laughs. "Are you afraid to let her fight me?"

"Leave her alone!"

Taichi.

She grins again, and the smile hurts and she tastes something metallic on her lips. Oh... it's probably her blood. How... fitting.

The Tag burns her hand and she stands fully upright. She can't see, but the Tag is tugging her forward. "Hey,  _demon._ " She laughs. "I'm over here. Come on!"

"Night-"

"Oh no," Hikari says, pushing away from Sora and stepping forward. "Not like that. Not even close. Come on, I'm your little pet project, right? You thought you were after the Eighth, right? But you were tripped up, every single time, weren't you? You bit Plotmon, you didn't get the right Crest, you couldn't even get the Eighth without beating me to near-death first, right?" She laughs again, and suddenly she can see him, him and the fury on his face. She can't see anything else, but that doesn't matter. "I survived your whips, your army, I've even  _made you bleed._ "

Hikari smiles slowly, sweet as honey. "Are you afraid of me?"

Vamdemon smiles right back, but it is an expression of anger. "What scientist fears a lab rat?" And he moves forward in a single stride, wrapping an arm around his torso. Tailmon lets out a screech of rage and throws herself up, claws glinting...

The demon wraps a hand around her throat and begins to squeeze. Tailmon kicks for air and there is a howl as a wolf moves to strike. Vamdemon laughs and throws her partner to the side. Hikari knows all of this from her ears and the sensations under her skin. Her eyes remain locked on Vamdemon's, blue to blue, smile to smile.

"I fear nothing," he says softly, like it's a great promise.

"Prove it," she says right back.

He smiles, and bites into her jugular.

For a moment, she feels nothing. Then it's like frostbite from the inside out, and she is screaming, writhing in his hold as something, energy, blood, she really can't tell, but it  _hurts._  She has no other sensations but that pain, that pain and another burning in some distant part of her body.

Her Tag.

In the haze, she almost hesitates, but the angels scream in unison with her own mouth and Hikari realizes this is her only shot. She forces up her arm and thrusts her Tag where the symbol of the Crest is under his skin.

Vamdemon breaks away and starts to wail. He tries to force her away but the Tag is stuck and there is a great, ripping, popping noise and she can't see again, but...

He howls. "Let me go! Let me go!"

Hikari laughs through freezing veins and pain. "Not without a parting shot. If I'm going down, so are you!"

She pulls her Tag away and the pink light went with it, leaving a gaping, gushing hole where it lay.

Her Crest stops glowing and Hikari thinks it's purring in her hand.

Hikari laughs. "Take that."

Then she hits the ground, everything fading to cold water and the Virus' soft cooing.

" _And down... we... go!"_


	65. 6-6

6-6

Red.

The air thunders red as Hikari hits the ground. At least, red is all Tailmon sees, spreading out from Vamdemon's chest, from her bleeding paws, from her partner's body.

_Corpse._

No. She is not dead. Hikari is not dead, she can't be, not now, not when there are still so many people here to protect and so much to do and not when Tailmon herself is  _still right here._

No. Not now.

Vamdemon is coughing for air, coughing and laughing and Tailmon wants to wipe that smile off his face but she feels her weakness now. He is a Perfect, considers himself perfection and her partner is  _gone_.

She has nothing left.

"Onee-chan?"

Taichi. Yagami Taichi, the little boy her human had died for, the little boy that her human had happily gone insane for with her. He is screaming, howling as a great metal dragon lunges for Vamdemon, only to be tossed aside like a plastic toy.

He was important to Hikari.

And he was still alive.

Vamdemon is walking closer, smiling. Taichi is being restrained by one of the other humans, who are all stock still, terrified, maybe even broken too.

Hikari gave everything for them, everything that she could possibly give. She maybe had hurt them while doing it, scared them, and now maybe she had broken them.

But Hikari had given all she could, and the  _bastard still wasn't gone._

Red.

Bubbling red like blood, like lava.

He's walking closer. Tailmon looks at the motionless body behind him. He can't pick up the Crest. It won't work now. Nothing will work now.

Nothing but murder.

" _Protect, protect!"_

That is her mantra, her way of life. And the only way to do that is...

" _Kill!"_

"Disappear, you little pest, Vamdemon grunts, looming over her with a leer.

Tailmon shrieks laughter. He thinks she's afraid. Oh no, she will never be afraid again. The only thing she had to be afraid for is gone.

No, she is  _enraged._

"You first," she whispers, and then pain erupts, a volcano as her data is surrounded in pitch black, lifting and warbling a horrible sweet song. Her fur is ripped from her skin as her body grows, matures,  _evolves._

Bastemon is not enough, she thinks. Not enough to eradicate, to avenge, to burn.

More. She needs more. More strength, more justice.

More madness.

She screams and as wings burst from her back her screams turn to laughter, blue armor covering fragile humanoid skin and hiding her eyes from the world. She didn't need to see who she was fighting anymore, only be able to kill it.

For Hikari. For the light.

Even the brightest angel will turn to evil. She, Ofanimon, was willing to fall into hell itself for that light.

For her snuffed-out light.


	66. 6-7

6-7

Time is fickle. Time is a monster in cohorts with fate.

In a way, that is the thought stuck in the Chosen Children's heads at that moment, when Sora tries to futilely wipe the red from her gloves and Hikari's body thumps to the ground. It isn't quiet, it's echoing and loud and surreal. How...?

Hikari has survived so much... so why doesn't she stand up now?

Because she can't.

Taichi screams, his little voice so high and splintery, and Sora reaches for him. His Digimon lunges forward, growing and roaring and...

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Vamdemon, even with a bleeding chest, throws him aside as he walks closer to them. Then Tailmon is in his way.

She's laughing.

Sora feels her heart sink.

Hikari-chan was the only one who kept the cat in anything resembling sanity. Hikari-chan was the only one who mattered to her, ever.

But they had mattered to Hikari-chan.

She hopes that is enough to keep them alive.

Because Tailmon shouldn't be able to evolve anymore.

But she is.

A dread wells up in Sora's chest as the darkness grows. She can hear Tailmon screaming, laughing, her voice undying. Taichi jerks helplessly to escape her, tears running down his face. He wants his sister, alive or dead, he wants her here to make everything all right.

"I'm sorry, Taichi," she whispers in his ear. "I... I..."

Perhaps it is the weakness in her voice that makes him stop, but he finally gives as whatever Tailmon is now bursts free. The dread in her chest thickens like cement and she watches an angel descend, bathed in roaring flames.

Vamdemon steps back as the angel touches ground. His smile is gone and he is slinking away from the flame.

"What's the matter?" The woman whispers. The whisper has the weight of an anvil and Sora finds herself crawling away. She, all of them really, have been a little scared of Tailmon, even before Bastemon almost killed them. But while Bastemon seemed driven by Hikari's heart, this Digimon did not.

She just was... rage, coiled up fireballs of hate focused on a single enemy.

What will happen when Vamdemon is dead?


	67. 6-8

6-8

Sora has no doubt in her mind that Vamdemon is about to die.

She decides not to risk it finding out what will happen when he does.

"Yamato-kun, Jyou-senpai," she hisses, passing the little boy over to them. Jyou shakes his head and catches the hint, helping Yamato to shepherd the others up through the hole they had made through the walls. Mimi is stumbling, and Takeru looks like he almost doesn't want to leave at all. But Angemon carries him out. For a moment, Sora looks back at Hikari's still body. It remains that way, but she steps forward anyway. Garudamon peers in as the angel gives her a side glance with no eyes to see with. She nods once and Sora moves, letting Garudamon carry the other humans away first.

Vamdemon lunges but is blocked by a careless arm. Ofanimon laughs, softer now, almost gentle as she draws a great scythe and slices down. Sora runs through the room and kneels besides the body. She discards her gloves and turns the girl over. It's difficult. She's heavier than she looks. A grimace makes her way to Sora's face as she moves it. She hesitates a second before taking her hat and planting it on the girl's head.

Taichi did not need to see that. If Hikari wasn't going to come back, he could at least remember what she looked like in life, not what Vamdemon had done to make her dead.

Bastard.

Sora stares for a moment, tears welling up in her eyes. "Hikari-chan..." she says, knowing the moment is bad, but being unable to help herself. "How did you know? Why did you go alone?"

She can't answer, Sora knows this. The Crest in her slowly stilling hands is pure grey and it hurts to see.

"How did you know I could love people?"

There is no sound as she works to put the girl on her back. Sora ignores the blood, it's nothing, just more red amidst red, more sadness piled up with pain. She makes it to where Garudamon is waiting and looks back at the angel. She is smiling beneath her visor but Sora is not comforted.

Once they are in the air or far away, all eight of them away from the destruction, women rescued, the building bursts into flames.

It's over.

Then Hikari screams.


	68. 7-1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry, this was supposed to be up yesterday I really do apologize!
> 
> And so we begin the final leg of this part of the journey. there are a million things I could say right now that would be silly and sentimental, so I won't. All I will say instead is: thank you, and give me your thoughts. I do love hearing them. Enjoy!
> 
> Arc 7: Crimson

7-1

Her blood is ice, her skin pain.

She is drowning, grey water almost soothingly warm. The smaller hand moves from her ankle and climbs, both of them reaching for her one clenched fist. She feels them, short nails, happy giggles.

Hikari hears herself sigh. " _Finally, I have you all to myself. Or you have me all to yourself."_ Her voice is so… innocent, happy. She doesn't want to open her eyes, doesn't want to see that face, that bright, abnormal-

" _Come on, look at me. I know you can still do that."_

With reluctance, she does.

Her child self lingers in the water, dressed in those orange pajamas. The same orange pajamas she wore when she met Koromon. Why this form? That wasn't the day-

" _No, it wasn't,"_ the Virus says, sounding so warm, so gentle. " _It wasn't the day I was given a voice, you're right. But the day after you met Koromon, I was born. Because after you met him, you had to lie, didn't you? You had to lie that you met him, that you saw strange things, that you were you. You had to bury all that truth, all that resentment. And… that started me."_

Hikari nods through pain. There is no need to deny it. She's dead now, after all.

" _We couldn't be talking if you were dead, Hikari."_ The little girl tweaks her nose. " _Don't be silly. Although..."_ She frowns. " _Him biting you definitely wasn't good. For your body, I mean. It's fine for me, just gives me more power, and you. But… I dunno if you can handle that much power while he's still alive."_

While he's… alive…?

" _Well, you get sick whenever he's around and he doesn't. He's a Digimon, so he's used to the feeling of his own power, and he's really strong for a Digimon, and he had the Crest until now, so it didn't really bother him that much. But you're still human… kind of… and humans aren't supposed to normally expel their power like he does."_ She watches herself fidget, and it's bizarre. " _Now… since you have so much, and Vamdemon's got just as much… well… they'll resound with each other."_ The blue eyes flicker. " _Dying won't be pretty."_

"I'm half sure it's not pretty now," she whispers. "But what can I do? I…"  _It hurts to breathe._

Even though she's frozen, it feels like her skin is melting.

Her smaller self moves forward, swimming gently forward to rest her hands against Hikari's cheeks. " _Become the Light,"_ she says warmly. " _All the warm things about the light, all of the cold things. Good, evil, all of it."_ The hands slip past to wrap around her neck. " _It's what your angels want… it's what we want. If we do this, we can live."_

Hikari wants to ask how she is supposed to do these things, but then, the pain doubles, and she begins to howl, howling raw, broken screams that she thinks are even made aloud.

" _No!"_ the Virus screams. " _Not yet! It's too soon, you can't wake up yet!"_


	69. 7-2

7-2

Unfortunately, her body doesn't seem to care.

Hikari opens her eyes, lids painfully heavy, to find herself floating. Up and up her body goes, away from the earth and the person holding her. It hurts, it all hurts and she's wondering dimly where the heck she is finding the ability to breathe. Then it doesn't matter because the rawness is back, like a whip to her spine.

" _Ooh… that…_ bully!"the Virus shrieks. " _We almost had, it but that stubborn fool just couldn't wait a few more minutes to burn like the rest of his minions, could he?"_

"Vamdemon-sama," croaks a voice below her. She can't move her eyes but soon more voices join them, chanting the name of the demon loud and clear in the air. The voices resound and suddenly there are hands under her back and they burn.

"Let go!" she wails, because the pain is too vivid, too much. "Let go of me! Can't you see…?"

_Don't you realize it hurts?_

" _Light doesn't hurt."_

Something is right about that statement, wrong about it. What is… what is it?

Why does it matter?

Below is the smell of smoke and above is the smell of straw and magic, magic the scent of sand and sparks and earth. Then the air is filled with the smell of fire as she thinks a clock ticks in the distance.

Why does it matter?

She writhes and thrashes because even if she's falling, falling is better than this.

Then she is no longer falling through the cool, burning air, but something is running over skin, soft and etheral.

The pain seeps out slowly and she squeezes her eyes shut, letting it ripple in and out and subside.

This time, when the Virus pulls her down, Hikari goes with no resistance, no fear.

She wonders if she can become the light if it hurts this much.


	70. 7-3

7-3

None of them had known what was going on when she had started screaming.

Sora had touched those wounds on her friend's body, and even with the whip and tenderness of the back put aside, Hikari's skull had been…

Well, there was a reason she had put the helmet there.

But now?

Well, she is unconscious again, but moments before she had been  _howling_ , banshee howls that made Tailmon's earlier cries sound like chirping birds.

The humanoid Digimon (Taichi's partner had identified him as Wizarmon) continues to emit green light from his fingers, and the agitated look on Hikari's face grows softer and softer. Then he pauses, panting for air.

"Are-Are you all right?" Sora asks, looking at the others' still pale, horrorstruck faces. She can't blame them, she's still… not sure… what happened.

But Hikari-chan isn't dead. That's the most important thing. She's still alive, for the moment.

Wizarmon shakes his head. "Don't… worry about me… she needs a real healer. My grasp of that kind of magic is horribly limited. I just took the pain away… she's still fading fast." He coughs briefly. "Do any of you know healing magic?"

Sora glances at the others, and all of them, even Mimi, manage the focus to shake their heads no.

Wizarmon curses. "Then we need to figure out what happened to Vamdemon. If this barrier is still up, he's still not dead. And as long as it's up… we're in trouble."

Sora looks around. "Where's… Tailmon? Where's her partner?" She looks down. "Don't tell me she's still in that fire?"


	71. 7-4

7-4

The flames roar, drowning out the voices, but not the beeping of Koushiro's computer. He turns around in Kabuterimon's grasp, opening it. His eyes widen.

"Everyone!" He shouts. "Get away from the area now!" Kabuterimon pulls him and Jyou away as Takeru is carried away. Taichi almost doesn't move, focusing on his sister's still body.

MetalGreymon goes on his own, but it's slow. His gait is heavy and loud and there is a sudden, large boom that throws the two of them off. MetalGreymon drops, tattered, violet wings trying to fly and ultimately failing. The blaze of fire and heat stries his back and sends them higher in the air. MetalGreymon grabs at taichi, who is shouting for his partner, only to fail and manage to block from the flames. Taichi broke from his stupor to cry out, falling as a little blue blur in unison with the rapidly streaking dinosaur.

Yamato snaps. "WereGarurumon!"

The wolf rushes forward but an indigo blur shoots from the burning building, grabbing both Taichi and Agumon from the air. The angel soars, silent, covered in soot. Her mouth is pressed into a thin line as she drops the two into Garudamon's hands.

"Tailmon?" Sora hears her partner say in a soft, reverent voice.

The angel shakes her head, no longer smiling. The rage bubbles beneath her line of an expression. "If only." She floats above them like she is standing on a platform, veiled eyes on Hikari's still form. "How?" She directs the question, curtly, towards Koushiro, who is typing desperately on his laptop.

"I don't know," he admits, clicking something. "Gennai-san… he's sent me something… a plaque he translated…" He hesitates and says softly. "We should get away from here… I don't think we're doing HIkari-san any favors staying up here."

The others agree and for a moment, all of them look at the angel that was once Tailmon. She is staring at the place where the fire rages, eyes almost expecting it to launch towards them.

"Tailmon-san?"

Takeru is looking up at her, Angemon clutching him so tight Sora is surprised he isn't being choked as he speaks. "Are you… coming with us?"

The angel faces him now, her expression remaining that thin line. It's frightening. Sora thinks she almost prefers Bastemon's explosions of crooning fury and Tailmon's giddy rage over this silence. But Takeru doesn't seem to be cowed in the slightest. Neither, Sora realizes, does Taichi.

"Onee-chan needs you," the boy adds, adjusting the goggles that had been resting on his neck. "If you stay here… Onee-chan may not wake up." His voice is solemn, but also the defiance of someone who knows how to storm and terrorize the soccer field until he wins. He is not scared of her, Sora thinks, but then, Taichi has never had a single reason to be terrified of Hikari's partner.

She envies that as Tailmon, or what was Tailmon, slowly nods, pulling herself to follow them onward.


	72. 7-5

7-5

They reach an area of destroyed buildings and set her down. Already, Hikari-chan's breathing has gotten harsher, and small whimpers of pain leave her lips in cold staccato. Mimi, expression mournful, holds her hand as Koushiro lays out the computer for everyone to see.

He begins to read. "The sky spun with mist will darken with the wings of the infinite bats. Then the servants will chant the name of their true lord. At the hour of the beast, the lamb will revive his savagery in all his wrath to feast upon the shattered earth. Leaving its soul to scour, the lamb is offered to its angels for salvation by blood." He grimaces and pauses for a few moments. "When the angel of cursed light is tempered by the spirit of rekindled hope, the flame will create a miracle for the ones they love."

All of them look at each other. "Wha… what?"

"Clear as mud, isn't he?" Yamato muttered. Takeru strokes Patamon's head, watching the women they had saved stare emptily up at the sky.

" _Vamdemon-sama_ ," they say in a monotonous croon. Mimi shudders.

"That could stop at  _any time._ "

Jyou agrees, looking up at the sky himself. Then he steps back, lifting Gomamon under an arm. "Guys, hide!"

They all hurry back, leaving the angel floating over their heads as bats go screeching. Agumon tches quietly, scratching a scar. Taichi looks at him. "Agumon?"

"M' scars itch," he mutters, then raises his head. "You all righ' up there, crazy cat?"

The angel nods. "Stay down there." Her voice doesn't leave the whisper, but the implication is clear.  _Keep her safe._

Koushiro watches her, typing into his computer. "Ofanimon… Falldown Mode…" He pauses. " _Ultimate_  level?"

"That exists?" Jyou's comment is directed to the Digimon, who each give a slow nod.

"It's hard to get there," Gabumon says softly. "Digimon who do that tend to be nothing more than myths. It's a great wall that only the strongest Digimon can reach… or…" He looks at Ofanimon. "The most desperate."

There's no doubt what side of that line Ofanimon is on.

"Could we do it?"

They look at Taichi, who is staring at the bats soaring around with a tight frown. "That lord sounds bad... and all the doctors are sleeping." He looks at his sister. "Onee-chan... we need to get her help somehow. "

"A human doctor won't be able to fix this," Wizarmon says. He is limping back over as he speaks, noting the way the unconscious girl's left hand remains clenched into a tight fist. "We need to dispel the barrier to get her to someone who understands Viruses."

"And what makes you so sure?" Sora hears Yamato's voice crack. "You don't even know how to break the barrier, do you?" He's frightened, and she can't blame him. Hikari makes a sound of pain and without realizing, she clenches the cold, white fist in hers.

"Yamato-kun," she says, looking at Hikari and her own bloodstained hat. "There aren't any human doctors awake right now. What other option do we have?"

He deflates. "Yeah… but…" He shifts and as he does, Jyou starts.

"Oh crap, Shuu!" As they turn to look, Jyou adds. "My brother! He wasn't asleep with everyone else. He might still be hiding out! He might be able to look over Hikari-chan! Let me get him!"

"I… I'll go with you." Koushiro stands. "I… I managed to hide my parents last night. I should… check on them."

The two of them hurry off, partners following at an awkward pace.

Yamato paces, Mimi toys with her hat, and Takeru sits in odd, ponderous quiet. Sora wonders what he's thinking, and judging by the way Yamato keeps glancing at him, he's doing the same.

Sora wishes she weren't useless, and tries to soothe Hikari's whimpering cries and warm her hand.

It feels like that's all she can do.


	73. 7-6

7-6

Koushiro returns before Jyou, and his parents are white-faced, eyes rimmed red. Koushiro looks similar and all of them look away to offer privacy. Sora idly wonders how much Hikari was aware of their individual struggles, or if they mattered to her. They probably did, but she hasn't ever known how to say so. Hikari-chan never knew how to say anything, not well enough for the rest of them to know.

And the way it's going, Sora isn't sure they will.

"Don't give up, Hikari-chan."

If only she would wake up... give them any idea what Vamdemon had done to her...

Wait.

"Wizarmon, what did Vamdemon do?" Her question is hurried, frightened... because there was something deeper, some underlying question.

The wizard frowns. "Bit her." His voice is thoughtful, like it's been turning over ideas longer than they've been alive.

"Would that do anything? Because he's a Digimon I mean."

"It might," he hedges, shifting with discomfort as he examines her. "I mean… does she have any data in her? Like any data spirits? Or anything of the like?" The humans look at each other, baffled. Wizarmon leans harder on his staff, trying a different approach. "Does she… she spoke to herself once in a while, did she ever talk about that?"

"From me." Ofanimon's hoarse voice from above seems like it is trying to scream. "I was infected as a Baby. It passed onto her."

Wizarmon's eyes widen beneath his hat. "We need to get out of here. Now."

"Why?" Takeru asks, as Jyou returns with his brother, standing up.

"Because she is-" Wizarmon is cut off by a frightful cacophony of shrieks. The bats have seen them, and are diving towards them. Ofanimon removes the scythe from her back and slices towards them, a grimace on her face. The bats scatter but they shriek all the louder. Their Digivices join them, glowing screens showing three sixes

"No..." Hikari chokes out, voice soft. They all turn to look at her. She isn't screaming, but blood is dripping from beneath Sora's hat and her body shakes. She is staring at her hands, at her Crest, the Crest they can't see.

"Onee-chan!" Taichi launches himself forward, but Wizarmon grabs him roughly, throwing him back. Hikari looks up at the sound, too-blue eyes unseeing as they rest on each person. Her smile is mirthless, but reflexive. She looks up at the bats and the smile breaks, lips purpling.

"No..." she chokes out again, still with the same smile. "I... can't... stop...i...t..."

"Hikari-san!"

"Takeru, stay away!"

Yamato fails to snatch him in time and Takeru rushes over, placing his hand in hers. "Don't do it, Hikari-san!" His voice chokes. "Don't give up, you can't.  _Please!_ You taught me to believe. Hikari-san!"

Yamato tugs at the back of his shirt and rips the boy off as Hikari looks at him, blue eyes flickering red as a weak smile crosses her lips. She seems to see him, even if it's just for a moment.

"Ha..ve…"

Then her gaze is ripped from them as a great, terrible scream comes from the earth, small whimpers leaving her mouth with violet fire. Like a ragdoll, her body is pulled up into the air, limbs dangling, The translucent flames grow darker, swirling like a tornado that soon engulfs her from view. Sora watches her hat smoke and fall. It floats to her hands, smoldering, and Sora ignores the pain in her hands, horror etching itself into her face.

At the hour of the beast," Wizarmon whispers. "The lamb will revive his unholy soul in all his wrath to feast upon the shattered earth."


	74. 7-7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Double update today. Second one coming after lunch. :D

7-7

There is a shrieking giggle as PicoDevimon hops out on broken talons. "Vamdemon-sama is almost here, almost awake!" His red eyes glimmer with mirth. "Your only hope was that girl and now she's gone!" He laughs again. It is a laugh like crashing ice, high and cracking.

"She's not!" Taichi snaps as the tornado of flame above their heads grows larger and larger. Ofanimon lowers herself towards them, twirling her scythe between her hands and waiting, watching, for whatever will come from those flames.

"Shut up, brat!" PicoDevimon screams, and Sora looks at his eyes, slightly bugged, rage-filled and slavish. "She thought she won, didn't she? That little human who ruined the magnitude of what my master could do! Well, now look! She's a pawn too, in the end!"

Ofanimon swings, stabbing the Digimon through the head. "Whiny little devil," she hisses without venom.

"O-Ofanimon?" Taichi says, watching the particles of dead monster float away. "I-Is Onee-chan… really gone now?"

Ofanimon shakes her head. "I… I can't tell anymore. I…  _don't know_." It's a shame she doesn't know how to lie.

 _Ofanimon…_ Sora watches the way the fallen angel's arms tremble and wings beat restlessly against her armor.  _What's worse, knowing she's dead… or not knowing if she can still protect her?_

"She's in there, right?" Takeru says, looking at Patamon. The little Digimon nods and flies up, evolving back to Angemon. "No matter what, she's in there, right?"

Taichi nods. "Yeah… and we just have to get her out… before that weird prophecy thing or whatever happens!" He looks at them, adjusting the goggles on his head. "I... I am going to save her, no matter what!"

"Not alone you're not," Agumon mutters, snapping the goggle band. "You can't exactly fly, kid."

"Yeah!" Takeru adjusts himself on Angemon's back. "But we can!"Yamato wants to say something, but then simply nods, biting down his words.

"Koushiro, any suggestions?" Yamato asks, turning to the boy.

Koushiro looks around, watching the way the flames spin and roil. "Just one," he says softly, lifting his gaze over. "Ofanimon, can you fly in there?" The woman looks at him, gauging him."You're the only one who might be strong enough to not be affected by the flames," he explains.

She remains still, looking over them. The Digimon all look at each other and grimace, shaking their heads.

"Hey, don't you think something dumb!" Gomamon shouts. His green eyes burn with indignation. "We were keeping everyone safe before you turned into a floating death-machine over there! Your duty's to your  _partner_ first, remember?"

"Yeah!" Gabumon agrees. "Don't take our fight from us!"

"Get moving!"

A ghost of a smile touches Ofanimon's face and she flies towards the swirling tornado.

 _"How sweet,"_ whispers a voice.  _"They think they can save us."_

"Hikari?" Ofanimon breathes. Hope kindles, and her mechanical form cracks.

_"Once upon a time."_


	75. 7-8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And... that's it! The sequel will be up next week! Thanks guys!

7-8

One moment, Ofanimon is soaring full-speed into the inferno, scythe in hand and flames crackling beneath her feet.

The next, she's dropping like a stone, scythe vanishing into the flames and armor melting.

"Angemon!" Takeru screams, and the angel bursts into action, barely managing to bring her down to the ground. Ofanimon coughs for air, and the others gather around her. Her fingers are charred and she hisses in pain.

"So close…" says a voice, and they all look around. It sounds like a whisper, but they can all hear it, so very clearly. "You were all just.. so…  _close_  to the truth. So close to everything, but… it's too much I'm afraid. Just too much. It's time for the little one to rest, the dance has been much too long."

The voice is in the inferno, and the flames are lowering down to the earth. "Everyone, get out of here!" Yamato snaps. They all run, women forgotten, Koushiro and Jyou pulling their relatives towards Digimon, fear or not. They are only meters away when the the flames touch, and the ground cracks.

What appears from the purple blaze is a beast, one that dwarfs the nearest skyscraper. It flexes red, translucent bat wings and raises a clawed arm towards them. With a venomous smile, it roars with glee.

" _Food!"_

Mimi gags. The smell from it is rotten, ashes and flesh and perhaps even poison, strong enough to make them all recoil in pain. Koushiro uncovers one hand to turn on his laptop.

"Venom… Vamdemon… Ultimate level… it's Vamdemon's true form, left without intelligence or reason, just power and a lust for more until it devours all."

"That's  _right!_ You really are the knowledgeable one, aren't you?"

Taichi looks up, and his brown eyes widen. "O… Onee-chan?"

Floating next to the beast, giggling softly, is Hikari. Or, at least, it looks like her. Her skin is too clear, lips too red now and eyes a painful blue and green. Her clothes are tattered fabric, arms wrapped around Ofanimon's blazing scythe.

Around her neck, her Crest blazes with light, blood-red and almost seeming to beat like a heart.

"Hi Taichi," she croons. "I'm ba-ack~! And so is he!" She jerks her thumb at the monster that has begun its hunt for food. "What are you going to do now, Chosen Children? The lamb has been sacrificed, and the beast prepares to feast?"

"What now," giggles the lamb. "Can we do for a miracle?"


End file.
